In an attempt to assist drivers in ignoring their phone while driving, Irish student Andrew Irwin has designed an app which can mute your mobile and auto-reply to texts on your behalf.

Drive Safe is a free app currently available to download from the Google Play store which uses your phone’s accelerometer to detect when you’re driving and automatically put your phone on silent. By doing this the app helps reduce the temptation to check a text you receive while driving, while also allowing drivers to enable an auto-reply feature which alerts anyone who tries to ring or text you while you’re driving that you are unavailable.

By using the phone’s accelerometer instead of GPS tracking battery and data usage is minimised while the app is active, with the app also offering a built-in emergency feature ensuring that you won’t miss urgent matters. After a third consecutive call from the same person the app is de-activated, allowing the phone to ring at normal volume and alert the driver to the importance of the call.

Drive Safe creator Andrew Irwin, a 23-year-old student of Computing in Software Development in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, believes the app could make an immediate difference in changing driver behaviour. “Simply the goal is to save lives. With one tap Drive Safe could help prevent fatalities and serious car accidents attributed to mobile phone usage while driving,” he said.

“I’ve always strived to keep the app as simple as possible, so that anyone of any technical ability or age can use the app first time, with ease. I have also tried to keep as much language out of the app as possible, as Drive Safe is a global app, used all around the world.”

Since its launch the App has been a global success, having been downloaded over 30’000 times in 116 countries and boasts users from Barbados to Letterkenny. In the last 30 days alone drivers in 71 different countries have used the app to encourage safer driving habits.

"The annual Shine ‘n Star Tow Truck Photo Beauty Contest taps into towing operators’ pride in their fleet, providing an opportunity to show off the beauty and brawn of their equipment," said Tow Times’ Publisher Clarissa Powell.

Michael's Towing was the Grand Prize winner in the 2014 Shine 'n Star Tow Truck Photo Beauty Contest for a Kenworth T800 twin steer with a Century 1140 rotator.

Michael Powell is owner of Michael's Towing & Recovery, which is located at 10934 Houser Dr. in Fredericksburg.

MANKATO The first snow emergency of every winter tends to be particularly miserable for on-street parkers in Mankato many of whom don't get the message that vehicles must be off the streets to allow plows to clear the roads. But this one was doubly so literally.
A big citywide tow is typically 100 to 150 vehicles. The first snow emergency of the 2016-17 winter sent a whole lot more to the impound lots.
"We issued 335 snow violations and actually towed 332" City Manager Pat Hentges told the City Council on Monday.
And that was before the special downtown snow emergency occurred late Monday night and early Tuesday morning. The downtown snow emergency that ended at 6 a.m. Tuesday added another 24 cars to the impound lots.
Along with a $25 parking citation violators were facing a nearly 50 percent increase in impound fees from two years ago to $107.88.
Combined that means Mankato wallets will be $47305 lighter after the last citation is paid and the last vehicle is collected from impound lots operated by Affordable Towing and All American Towing.
"We certainly don't want to see the towing of that many cars" Hentges said. "But it essentially allows us to get these streets plowed in a safe and effective manner."
Kent Reeves owner of All American Towing which handles city towing south of Main Street said he wasn't sure why so many more were towed following the weekend snowfall which totaled about 6 inches.
"That's a good question" Reeves said. "I did talk to a number of the people who were towed. A lot of them this was their first snow emergency."
That lack of familiarity with the rules particularly in a college town that attracts thousands of newcomers each fall is the reason the first snow emergency of the season results in more towing. After paying $132.88 most people learn their lesson and pay close attention to subsequent snow emergency announcements.
Another explanation is that Mankato became a lot more efficient at towing starting a year ago when it split the city between the two towing companies. In the past one company was granted the city contract and had to cover the entire city.
And Council member Jason Mattick wondered if the day of the week was the problem. The snow emergency was announced early Sunday morning warning people that ticketing and towing would begin at 10 p.m.
"Not that it's your fault but I think a lot of people were just in a Sunday lull Vikings or whatever" Mattick said. "So it caught a lot of people off-guard. It's unfortunate."
Finally Reeves said he noticed towing of some vehicles that city streets department officials might have let slide in previous years. The vehicles were those that had been parked on streets where plows had already made a pass or two. In the past those cases might have been forgiven with towing focused on cars that had been parked throughout the snowstorm and were surrounded by unplowed snow.
Hentges agreed that some people mistakenly believe they can resume parking on a street once they deem it's been plowed "curb to curb." That's the rule in some cities and was once the rule in Mankato but the restrictions were simplified to prohibit parking until the snow emergency ends.
"We did have a few people confused on that" he said. "But that's been the case the last three years."
Along with the current practice of notifying the media of snow emergencies posting the information on the city's website and using social media Hentges said the city has persuaded Minnesota State University to forward the notifications to students. And starting next year snow emergency information will be given to landlords to pass on to renters.
Read more:http://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/snow-emergency-prompts-massive-towing/article_40a1db28-c17f-11e6-8f4a-bb98170ad680.html
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Towing 5,000 pounds isn’t what it used to be. The weight of steel and wood hasn’t changed but the towing capabilities and capacities of the vehicles responsible for moving them sure have.

FAST FACTS

Honda rates the Ridgeline to tow 5,000 pounds, falling short of the Toyota Tacoma’s 6,800-pound max rating and the Chevy Colorado’s max rating of 7,700 pounds, though in the payload department, the Ridgeline stacks up well. It is the only midsize pickup to use a multi-link independent rear suspension, rather than a leaf spring setup, and it is rated for a maximum 1,584 pounds, four pounds more than what the Chevy Colorado can handle.

Towing and Hauling

Providing motivation for the Ridgeline is a transversely-mounted 3.5-liter V6 that makes 280 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque. Power is sent to the front wheels as standard, while all-wheel drive can be had for $1,800 (Canadian Ridgelines get all-wheel drive as standard equipment). GM manages to squeeze 305 hp and 269 lb-ft from its 3.6-liter V6, while Toyota gets slightly less hp and a little more torque from its 3.5-liter.

Spec for spec, Honda’s small pickup is about on par with the competition on most fronts, though it is the tow rating that falls short. Even if you’re not pulling the limit every time you tow, having that extra capacity means that you’re not stressing your truck as much when you pull.

So can the Ridgeline actually pull at its 5,000-pound limit with confidence? Seeing as towing confidence is never really a yes or no answer, let’s explore. We hitched up a large four-place snowmobile trailer that weighs in just shy of 5,000 pounds to dig deep into the truck’s capability and see how the little Honda handled being truly stressed.

Easily the best part of the towing experience with the Ridgeline is the way the suspension soaks up all the weight with little issue. Despite the rear end squatting, the front wheels didn’t feel light and the nose wasn’t pointing straight up into the air. Side-to-side movement felt controlled, and the even the trailer’s weight couldn’t push the truck around.

This translates into the cabin with nice, planted steering feel and little to no torque steer thanks in part to the all-wheel drive.

If the towing experience ended there, the Ridgeline would leave with a stellar report card. Unfortunately there are other parts of the package that are important as well, namely the brakes and the engine.

Not Quite Enough Engine

The V6 needs to be constantly revved to keep it in the power band, and even at full tilt, it felt small with the big trailer behind it. Part of the problem is the lack of a proper tow/haul mode. Honda offers a ‘D4’ button on the gear shift, which will lock out the top gear and also slightly adjust the shift points, but you cannot manually choose which gear you’d like your truck to be in. For engine braking there is also an ‘L’ (low) gear which keep the truck first through third only and tries to stay in the lowest gear possible. This setting does help when descending, but it cannot replace the ability to shift your own gears, an especially important feature when towing.

However, the biggest weak point in our test was the brakes, but there is a caveat here. Our trailer was equipped with trailer brakes, but the Ridgeline does not include an integrated brake controller.

An aftermarket brake controller would be the answer for anyone towing big weight with the truck and would go a long way to making towing safer. Because without trailer brakes, which is how we tested it, this rig takes some serious time to stop.

If you’re towing this kind of weight, a trailer brake controller is absolutely essential, and it’s actually the law in many states and Canadian provinces.

So what’s the takeaway from all of that? If you plan to tow 5,000 pounds every day the Ridgeline will do it, but you’re better off getting a half-ton or a more capable midsize pickup to keep things comfortable. I would say the comfortable max limit for the Ridgeline is around 3,500 pounds. Any more, and this little Honda starts to feel undersized.

So it may not be the heavy lifter among its peers, but there is one aspect of the Ridgeline that is second to none: unladen driving dynamics. Thanks to a combination of factors including its unibody construction and independent suspension, the Ridgeline drives like a big Honda Accord on the road, offering absolutely none of the stiff, choppy ride most body-on-frame trucks have.

Pricing

Those shopping for a Ridgeline will have to spend at least $30,375 for a basic front-wheel drive Ridgeline, while the top-trim all-wheel drive Black Edition tops out at $43,770. The Ridgeline is only offered as a crew cab with a single bed length, but even when you look at comparable trucks from Toyota and Chevy, the Honda is at least a few thousand dollars more expensive.

In Canada, the Ridgeline starts at $36,590, which includes all-wheel drive as standard. At the top end, customers will spend $48,590 for the Black Edition, once again starting at more than the competition and ending with a higher price tag, too.

The Verdict: 2017 Honda Ridgeline Towing Review

The Honda Ridgeline is a quandary to truck buyers because it offers the ride and handling of a car, with some pickup truck capability. If you’re willing to live in the middle between those things, where the Ridgeline spends most of its time as a car and is occasionally needed to move a very heavy load, the truck will work wonders. But buying the Ridgeline in anticipation of a life filled with big trailers and heavy loads, you’ll wish you bought a bigger truck.

Nissan has worked on making the relationship between people, cars and society more exciting under its Intelligent Mobility vision, a framework for how cars will be driven, powered, and integrated into society. This new project, which utilises mapping and communication technologies to link an intelligent and all-electric car to infrastructure, is a step towards the realisation of Nissan Intelligent Integration.

The IVT system uses a modified Nissan LEAF to autonomously tow trollies carrying finished vehicles between designated loading and unloading points at the plant.

Unlike conventional automatic guided vehicle systems for transporting parts, which often require the installation of rails or extensive use of magnetic tape, this system does not need any special infrastructure to operate. The towing car is equipped with an array of cameras and laser scanners that detect lane markings, curbs and potential obstacles or hazards around the vehicle. By cross-referencing this information with map data, the towing car calculates its own location, negotiating the route to its destination unaided. The towing car travels within the speed limits of the factory, and automatically stops if it detects an obstacle or hazard ahead, before setting off again when it has determined that the road ahead is clear.

The towing route can easily be altered to accommodate changes in production processes or vehicle transport routes. All driverless towing cars are connected to a central traffic control system, which can monitor the location, driving speed, remaining battery and operational status of each vehicle. When two driverless towing cars meet at an intersection, the control system’s algorithm determines which car should be given right-of-way, and in case of emergency, the system can stop the vehicles remotely.

The Oppama Plant’s existing logistics system requires finished vehicles to be transported from the end of the production line to the facility’s dedicated wharf by a team of drivers, at which point they are loaded onto ships. Introducing IVT will allow Nissan to improve production efficiency.

Since trial operations of the system began roughly a year ago, more than 1,600 test runs have been carried out at the plant. The data acquired has been utilised to ensure that the system can operate reliably within the plant’s premises. A safety system and a fail-safe system have been developed to counter potential risks or unexpected conditions the IVT system may face during autonomous driving, including adverse weather and low light conditions. Nissan will continue to test the system at its Oppama Plant, and will examine the possibility of implementation at other manufacturing facilities both in and outside Japan.

Tourists got their car stuck on the beach after driving a Subaru onto the sand
The driver then reversed into a four-wheel drive that was towing them out
Car was badly damaged and most of the rear of the vehicle had caved in
A group of backpackers who got their car stuck on a beach thought they were in luck when a 4x4 owner offered to tow them out of the sand.
But the travellers were left with an even bigger headache after they failed to apply the brakes - and ended up smashing into the back of the Land Rover.
A series of hilarious videos show the Good Samaritans slowly dragging the Subaru out of the sand after it got bogged down at Inskip Point on Rainbow Beach in south east Queensland.
Tourist smashes into 4WD that was towing him out of sand
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A group of backpackers who got their car stuck on a beach thought they were in luck when a 4x4 owner offered to tow them out of the sand
But the travellers were left with an even bigger headache after they failed to apply the brakes - and ended up smashing into the back of the Land Rover
But as the Land Rover comes to a gentle stop after pulling the Subaru for a few metres the car driver fails to notice and continues to reverse.
'Brake brake' a woman shouts as the car plows into the back of the four-wheel drive with an almighty crunch.
Two people in the rear of the shot can be seen with their heads in their hands but others seem to see the funny side.
'No one's hurt guys it happens' one man is heard saying.
No serious damage appears to have been done to the 4X4 but the same cannot be said for the car.
The rear of the Subaru has caved in while the bumper and rear window look damaged.
As the Land Rover comes to a gentle stop after pulling the Subaru for a few metres the car driver fails to notice and continues to reverse into it
The driver of the car (right) looks distinctly glum as he clambers out of the wrecked car
'Landy hasn't got a mark on her' one man remarks.
'Landy's good to go' another replies.
While they seem in high spirits the driver of the car looks distinctly glum as he clambers out of the wrecked car.
The man who says he does not have an Australian driving license appears to be a tourist and was travelling with surfboards on the top of his car.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4036478/Backpackers-got-car-stuck-sand-smash-4x4-towing-Queensland.html#ixzz4Sw5lpz8A
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Above the objection of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and numerous local business owners, the Arlington County Board on Tuesday approved a series of changes to its towing ordinance, including a controversial provision requiring businesses to authorize individual tows.

The so-called “real time authorization” provision was approved with a delayed implementation date: July 1, 2017. That will give the County Manager time to “identify alternative strategies to mitigate aggressive towing practices and provide an interim report,” according to a county press release.

The provision, which was not recommended by the County Manager nor the county’s Trespass Towing Advisory Board, requires “real time authorization for all tows from commercial property conducted during business hours.” Currently, businesses can grant blanket pre-authorization to towing companies to tow any vehicle trespassing on their lots.

Other provisions approved unanimously by the County Board include:

“Require tow truck drivers to photograph the vehicle at all four corners, providing vehicle owners with important safeguards should their vehicle be damaged, and providing towers with protection against false damage claims.”

“Requiring that the receipt given to the vehicle owner include a disclosure that photos and/or video evidence taken before the tow are available upon request and the contact information for the County office that handles trespass towing complaints.”

“Requiring towing and recovery operators to properly secure all loads to meet all safety standards.”

“A new requirement for signage/markings on the interior of parking lots or facilities to provide additional, clear information to vehicle owners about the parking restrictions on the property. This requirement builds upon the existing requirement for signs at all vehicle entrances.”

“Extend the eligible area for the location of storage facilities from three miles to three and one-quarter miles. This could allow more eligible locations for storage facilities, giving property owners more contractors to choose from without burdening vehicle owners in retrieving their vehicles.”

“These amendments provide important protections to vehicle owners whose vehicles are taken without their consent,” County Board Vice Chair Jay Fisette said in a statement. “We believe these reasonable requirements support the rights of Arlington County property owners and their tenants to enforce restrictions on their property while providing common sense standards for how vehicles are removed.”

The Board also authorized two additional towing fees: $25 for towing a vehicle in the evening (7 p.m.-8 a.m.) and $25 for towing a vehicle on a weekend or holiday. The changes were required by state code. Together, the fees could increase the initial charge for a tow (not including storage fees) to as high as $185.

Another provision prohibits towing companies from towing public safety vehicles, except at the direction of police.

The Board spent more than two hours on the towing ordinance amendments, mostly focusing on the real time authorization provision — which was also referred to as a “second signature” requirement.

During the public comment period, a number of business owners spoke out against it.

“I’m opposed to the second signature for the fact that I already have a detailed contract with the towing company that I use,” said a business owner, identified as a Mr. Fernandez. “It takes away from my employees that have to go out and sign these tow tickets or email, or whatever it is, it just doesn’t make any sense and I’m opposed to it.”

John O’Neill, the owner of Advanced Towing — which is perhaps the biggest trespass tower in the county — also spoke out against the provision.

“We believe that the second signature will cause adverse safety and operational problems for us, property owners and business owners,” he said. “There’s a misconception the property owners or business owner lets us tow at will. That is false. Towing is a last resort most property owners have examined. It is not a first choice.”

Takis Karantonis, a Columbia Heights resident and the former director of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, said that both residents and business owners he talked to agreed that overly aggressive towing was a “serious problem” in Arlington that was discouraging customers from shopping in certain areas.

“The bottom line is that everybody, literally everybody, both on the business side and on the customer side, recognizes that the predatory towing — not every towing — that happens on purpose is a problem,” he said.

County Board members sounded off on the real time authorization provision, with John Vihstadt taking the most skeptical tone.

“I am supportive of the remainder of the staff report,” he said. “I am also in agreement of Mr. Fisette apart from the second signature. Businesses have an incentive to keep accessible and adequate parking for the customers, and that is their lifeline. And in Arlington in many places, we don’t have enough of it.”

Jay Fisette was the primary champion of the real time authorizaiton requirement. He spoke at length about why he thought it was necessary, noting that he did not think the low number of formal complaints lodged against towing companies was representative of what he sees as widespread consumer frustration.

This is both awesome and scary.

As a car owner, seeing your ride get towed away is one of the worst things you can experience. It’s your fault for parking in the wrong place, but still. Anyway, here’s a tow truck that’s so fast you won’t actually see your car being towed in the first place.

It was filmed outside an airport in Turkey, taking away an illegally parked Renault Clio. The Iveco Eurocargo carrier pulls up next to the Clio and two pillar lifts descend down to the road. The forks slide out and clamp the wheels, then raise the car above the truck’s chassis. Finally, the lifts slide across to the other side the chassis and the truck is ready to drive off.

The whole process takes precisely 60 seconds. Which isn’t even enough time to realize it’s your car’s alarm you can hear wailing. Instead, the owner will have emerged to find their car isn’t where they left it. Which is actually worse than seeing it being taken away. But again, it’s their fault for leaving it in the wrong place.

It's an awesome piece of engineering - I haven't been able to ascertain the manufacturer - but quite scary, too. Partly just because it's so effective, but also because there's not much you could do to stop criminals using it to boost cars.

I'm not aware of these being used anywhere other than Turkey; have you seen one in operation?

Volkswagens Dieselgate settlement with American owners of its cheaty diesel cars will cost the company more than $15 billion or five billion dollars more than was originally reported according to Bloomberg. More than $10 billion of that is slated just to go to Volkswagen owners.
The reported settlement also leaves less than $3 billion left over in Volkswagens initial Dieselgate fund for pending legal actions and investigations in the rest of the entire world.
Here are the financial details of how it will work:
Car owners will get a total of $10.03 billion which covers both the value of their vehicles before the scandal became public last September and compensation payments of as much as $10000 apiece two people familiar with the negotiations said. Those figures could rise if VW misses certain repair deadlines.
The compensation figure jumped over the past few days these people said as the parties changed their estimates on what it would take to get some 85 percent of owners to trade in their vehicles under the settlement.
The rest of the settlement includes $2.7 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board and an additional $2 billion for research into clean-emissions technology Bloomberg reported.
Theres a further settlement with individual states as well possibly to the tune of another $400 million. Theres also no exact timetable yet for when any of this will come to fruition or how VW owners will be able to make a claim for their cars.
But as we said earlier today this is definitely not the end. There are still multiple lawsuits pending in many different countries along with pissed off shareholders and regulators. Not to mention any lingering depression in sales that can be attributed to the scandal.
Read More:http://jalopnik.com/volkswagens-dieselgate-settlement-will-cost-a-whopping-1782703916
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You didn't think you'd heard the last from Ford about its stunning victory at Le Mans did you? We're not even talking about the 2016 running of the 24-hour endurance race. No Ford throws it all the way back to 1966 for its new 2017 Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition. The black-and-silver livery recalls the GT40 Mark II driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon back in 1966. That year the No. 2 car came in first place followed by the No. 1 GT40 of Ken Miles and Denis Hulme and the No. 5 GT40 driven by Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson.
Each '66 Heritage Edition will wear Shadow Black exterior paint either matte or gloss finish with silver stripes and Frozen White No. 2 graphics on the hood and doors. The 20-inch forged aluminum wheels are done up in a gold satin finish. Ebony leather covers the carbon fiber seats inside with gold accents on the instrument panel seat X-brace and shift paddles. Blue seatbelts round out the homage to the 1966 racecar.
Ford says the '66 Heritage Edition will be sold in 2017 only which makes sense. We wouldn't bet against similar special-edition offerings in 2018 '19 and '20 1966 kicked off four straight victories for Ford at Le Mans but if you like this specific livery you'd better get in line now. See for yourself in our high-res image gallery up top and feel free to read more in the press release below.
All-New 2017 Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition Pays Homage toHistoric Livery on 1966 Le Mans Winner
- All-new Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition with unique black and silver-stripe livery celebrates 1966 Le Mans-winning GT40 Mark II race car driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon
- Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition honoring historic No. 2 race car limited to 2017 model year only
- Limited-edition Ford GT features exclusive race-number graphics and unique interior colors materials and appointments
DEARBORN Mich. June 27 2016 The all-new 2017 Ford GT will be available in a limited-edition Heritage theme honoring the GT40 Mark II driven to victory by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon at Le Mans in 1966 part of the historic 1-2-3 Ford GT sweep. The car will feature unique interior and exterior color themes and an exclusive wheel finish.
"Celebrating the anniversary of Ford's historic victories at Le Mans has always been a part of the return of the Ford GT" said Raj Nair Ford executive vice president product development and chief technical officer. "The 2017 Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition is a stunning tribute to the car that kicked off Ford's string of Le Mans victories in 1966."
The Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition features a Shadow Black exterior in either gloss or matte finish with silver stripes and exposed carbon fiber package. The car sports Frozen White #2 hood and door graphics and 20-inch one-piece forged aluminum wheels in a gold satin clearcoat with black lug nuts.
The interior of the limited edition model wraps the Ford GT carbon-fiber seats in Ebony leather with pillowed inserts and plow-through stitching and the seats' head restraints and the steering wheel are debossed with the Ford GT logo. The instrument panel pillars and headliner also features an Ebony-leather wrap with gold appliqués on the instrument panel the seat's X-brace and shift paddles. Like the 1966 race car the steering wheel is leather wrapped with seat belts featuring a unique blue webbing.
Rounding out the modifications to the Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition are a unique serialized identification plate the #2 interior door graphic and exposed matte carbon fiber door sills air register pods and center console.
Garen Nicoghosian exterior design manager for the car says the team set out to highlight where it all started with the Ford GT. "While the looks are distinctly based on the GT40 Mark II race car" he says "we've accentuated new styling cues to provide a modern interpretation."
The Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition can be viewed at FordGT.com using the configuration tool.
Limited quantities will be available for the 2017 model year only.
Read More:http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/27/2017-ford-gt-66-heritage-edition/
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The Lake County Council is considering an amendment to its ordinances governing the towing program by dropping a franchise fee operators pay to the county.
The proposed amendment would cut a portion of the fees the county collects from tow operators in an effort to lessen the cost Lake County residents pay if their cars get towed according to Councilman David Hamm D-Hammond. The county's ordinance currently levies a $50 franchise fee of tow operators and a $75 fee paid to the county for each tow conducted under the terms of the contract.
Larry Blanchard a commissioners' consultant said the franchise fee netted the county $80000 to $90000 before the program was restructured putting that money into the general fund. When the towing fees went to the Sheriff's Department Blanchard said that went toward funding salaries and other items.
The County Council eliminated the towing fund used to pay for salaries after the Board of Commissioners took over the towing program.
"So we're losing $90000?" asked Councilman Jamal Washington D-Merrillville.
"Yes we're losing $90000" Hamm said.
Hamm said he's supporting the commissioners' request as the council opted to given them authority over how the towing program is run.
Washington said he supports the amendment but wanted to know the rationale.
Council President Ted Bilski D-Hobart said he's concerned because anytime money is taken away there's always something that comes up short.
"It's coming" Bilski said.
The Lake County Council stripped governance of the towing contracts from the Lake County Sheriff's Department earlier this year after federal indictments against Sheriff John Buncich alleged he solicited bribes from operators in exchange for more tow jobs.
The Board of Commissioners continue to move forward with its reforms to the county's towing policies which many were set to start June 1.
In March the county received proposals from 23 tow operators vying for contracts; eight of those operators previously had contracts with the sheriff. Three operators who submitted proposals were disqualified for not meeting the county's guidelines.
The commissioners approved nine contracts in May and were waiting for another 11 to be returned by a May 30 deadline. Once all the contracts were received the commissioners planned to develop quadrants assigned to towing companies.
If a tow operator had a contract with the Sheriff's Department that was not renewed by the commissioners it will be terminated.
Read more:http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-lake-towing-fee-amendment-st-0609-20170608-story.html
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To live in Miami is to constantly feel as if you're trapped in an abandoned David Lynch film. Seminude men with face tattoos rollerblade through traffic in broad daylight, dilapidated buildings could be infested with anything from peacocks to bears to trained circus seals, and flaming boats just sometimes drive down the highway and everyone acts like things are cool.

Earlier this week, an anonymous Imgur user posted a GIF of a navy-blue pickup truck towing a boat on a random highway while the boat spit gigantic flames behind him. A Redditor who goes by iBleedOrange then spotted the clip on the website and posted it to Reddit's r/WTF forum, where the clip then blew up, no pun intended.

It's unclear how old the footage might be, but the GIF was posted online only four days ago. (Redditor iBleedOrange told New Times via direct message that he had no idea who posted the clip originally.)

The only thing more astounding than the clip might be what happened next: A group of Redditors used Google Maps to pinpoint the location where the footage was taken. Naturally, it was Miami-Dade. The clip was filmed directly across the street from Jorge Mas Canosa Middle School on Newton Road in far Southwest Miami-Dade County.

Here's an aerial map. It appears the footage was taken directly in front of the school:

Google Maps

One user, named "ShadyInternets," claimed online that his or her mom drove behind the truck for a few miles and then, buggin out, called her kid:

if that is in miami (trees/houses look like it could be) my mom was down there visiting family and saw it, and followed it lol

she called me freaking out and cracking up. she thought she was losing her mind because she saw it still in the driveway down the street when the dude was hooking it up to the truck. she said it looked like he was unhooking it, but when they turned around to get a better look it was gone.... she then saw the smoke and went towards it and eventually caught up and found him backing the boat into a canal ramp area, then he just sort of sat there next to it while it burned.

she had a few pics and was so happy because she was like, nobody would have believed me if i didnt go back to get a picture! dude apparently lives down the street from my grandma lol

As the saying goes: Pics or it didn't happen, bro. In the meantime, we've reached out to Miami-Dade County Police to see if they have any info about the boat's owner or what in hell happened.

For decades, the parking lot at Rite Aid in West Reading's commercial district has served, for better or worse, as the fallback parking location for patrons of shops and restaurants along Penn Avenue.

Whenever there are no vacant on-street spaces, patrons could often find a spot in the spacious West Reading Center - anchored by the Rite Aid pharmacy and Chef Alan's American Bistro - in the 500 block of Penn Avenue.

TODAY'S SPONSOR:

A brochure published by the West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation even included a capital "P" on the West Reading Shopping Center, giving the impression that it was OK to park there.But if you park your vehicle there and walk to one of the shops, bistros, taverns or craft beer locations along Penn Avenue, you are ignoring the signs posted throughout the shopping center lot advising that it is restricted to customers of the center.Those signs include a message in red print stating that vehicles could be towed at their owners' expense. That is no idle threat, as dozens of patrons have recently discovered.Starting early this year, a towing contractor operating at the behest of the shopping center owner has been hauling vehicles from the lot, often late at night after all the businesses in the center have closed for the day.

The shopping center owner, Chip Lutz, wasn't available for comment. However, one of his tenants, Chef Alan's president Alan Rutter, said in an email:

"The problem with the parking has been brewing for years. This parking lot is a private lot and is owned by Chip Lutz the landlord for the use of the tenants in the shopping center connected to the lot. Those tenants, including myself, pay thousands of dollars per year in leases and for the common area maintenance of the parking lot."The problem, Rutter said, is that many new businesses have been allowed to open in recent years on Penn Avenue with inadequate parking to support them. So, they rely on the shopping center spaces for their customers and employees. This puts a burden on patrons of the shopping center's businesses, who can't always find a parking spaces.

'Killing the goose'

Tavern owners, however, fear that the mass towing equates to "killing the goose that laid the golden egg" for the revitalized business district, which over the last decade or so has become a dining destination.

"It's really, really disheartening, and it's upsetting for me and a lot of restaurant owners in the area," said Mark Woodward, co-owner of West Reading Tavern, 606 Penn Ave.Woodward said that about a month ago, 26 cars were towed between 11 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday. One of the vehicle owners was a friend."They're actually sending like fleets of tow trucks to the parking lot," Woodward said. "We understand it's a private lot, but people have been parking there a long time."A Mohnton woman contacted the Reading Eagle after her car was towed last weekend while she was enjoying a night on the vibrant Penn Avenue strip.When she returned about midnight, a tow truck operator was pulling several vehicles onto a rollback truck. Her car was already gone.She confronted the operator. Come to the impoundment lot during business hours on Monday, the woman said she was told. After insisting she couldn't wait that long, the company agreed to send someone to meet her at the lot, located off the Warren Street Bypass in Reading.The woman also was told that she needed to pay the $250 towing fee in cash or certified check.She took an Uber to the location about 2:30 a.m."Then we stood there, with cash, waiting for someone to show up," she recalled.She got her impounded vehicle that night, but the experience left her frustrated.Woodward said that the borough, while it is not ordering the towing, shoulders some of the blame for the problem because it hasn't planned for off-street parking in the area.Some Penn Avenue business have a few customer parking spaces behind their shops, along Cherry Street, but many people don't know those exist."The borough never addressed the parking situation, that's the biggest thing," Woodward said. "Every Sunday, the West Reading Farmers Market is held directly across from the parking lot that nobody is supposed to use."Woodward delivered that message to borough council in May, when he also distributed 40 fliers titled "Towing the Money" that shows a silhouette of a tow truck hooked to a money bag.

'Victim of success'

Dean L. Rohrbach, manager of the West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation, said West Reading has become a victim of its own success, which has resulted from an investment about 15 years ago in improvements to the sidewalks and streetlights.

The previous owner of the shopping center rarely enforced the parking restriction, Rohrbach said. The property changed hands a few years ago, he said, noting that the new owner "has always been a little peeved that people not using the businesses he rents to are parking there."William Arndt, owner of Arndt's Recovery Solutions, a Robesonia-based company contracted to do the towing, said the issue is no different than if your neighbor threw a party and allowed guests to park in your driveway without asking your permission.According to Arndt, Lutz had West Reading police come out on occasion and cite drivers, but that became a time-consuming burden on the police."So the next step is to tow the vehicles," Arndt said.He denied, however, that the towing is being done exclusively late at night, after all the center's businesses, including Chef Alan's, have closed."We're towing out of there during the day, too," Arndt said, adding that it's usually done in communication with the tenant businesses."We're contracted to do the job, and obviously there's not a lot of companies out there that want to do the job," Arndt said. "I have a lot of angry customers."The issue is they're not patrons of the West Reading Center. A lot of these people are coming back to their vehicle at 12:30, 1, 2 or 3 in the morning. Where were they? At Barley Mow, West Reading Tavern and Chatty Monks, places like that, and it's not right for the property owner to clean up after them."

An issue for borough

Peter Starr, co-owner of The Barley Mow craft beer house at 719 Penn Ave., said some of his good customers recently had their vehicles towed, and he worries about the impact.

With West Reading promoting itself as a good place for the younger crowd, a short-term solution is desperately needed while a long-term solution is pursued, he said."It's certainly not his (the center owner) responsibility to provide parking for the entire Penn Avenue," Starr said. "He is completely within his rights to do that. I don't blame him at all."The best solution, Starr suggested, may be for West Reading to lease part of the shopping center lot."I think it's an issue for the borough to work on," he said.A phone message left with Chatty Monks Brewing Co., a brewpub at 610 Penn Ave., was not returned.West Reading Mayor Valentin Rodriguez Jr. said borough officials are well aware of the problem and are working toward a solution.Borough council's traffic and infrastructure committee will be soon be revisiting the traffic study that was completed in April 2015 by Walker Parking Consultants.The study recommended several options, some of which required further study phases that have yet to be approved. They range from building a parking structure to installing parking meters to ramping up enforcement of two-hour parking limits.Valentin said that there have been preliminary discussions about where to put a parking garage and how to pay for it. The only open space large enough would be the shopping center, which the borough doesn't own.He said another potential solution would be to divert traffic into the surrounding neighborhoods, something that could negatively impact residents."We're displacing our residential parking now with event parking," he said. "There's some pressure there that needs to be looked at. The study is a good start. They're professionals, and it needs to be looked at."

The Lake County Council is considering an amendment to its ordinances governing the towing program by dropping a franchise fee operators pay to the county.
The proposed amendment would cut a portion of the fees the county collects from tow operators in an effort to lessen the cost Lake County residents pay if their cars get towed according to Councilman David Hamm D-Hammond. The county's ordinance currently levies a $50 franchise fee of tow operators and a $75 fee paid to the county for each tow conducted under the terms of the contract.
Larry Blanchard a commissioners' consultant said the franchise fee netted the county $80000 to $90000 before the program was restructured putting that money into the general fund. When the towing fees went to the Sheriff's Department Blanchard said that went toward funding salaries and other items.
The County Council eliminated the towing fund used to pay for salaries after the Board of Commissioners took over the towing program.
"So we're losing $90000?" asked Councilman Jamal Washington D-Merrillville.
"Yes we're losing $90000" Hamm said.
Hamm said he's supporting the commissioners' request as the council opted to given them authority over how the towing program is run.
Washington said he supports the amendment but wanted to know the rationale.
Council President Ted Bilski D-Hobart said he's concerned because anytime money is taken away there's always something that comes up short.
"It's coming" Bilski said.
The Lake County Council stripped governance of the towing contracts from the Lake County Sheriff's Department earlier this year after federal indictments against Sheriff John Buncich alleged he solicited bribes from operators in exchange for more tow jobs.
The Board of Commissioners continue to move forward with its reforms to the county's towing policies which many were set to start June 1.
In March the county received proposals from 23 tow operators vying for contracts; eight of those operators previously had contracts with the sheriff. Three operators who submitted proposals were disqualified for not meeting the county's guidelines.
The commissioners approved nine contracts in May and were waiting for another 11 to be returned by a May 30 deadline. Once all the contracts were received the commissioners planned to develop quadrants assigned to towing companies.
If a tow operator had a contract with the Sheriff's Department that was not renewed by the commissioners it will be terminated.
Read more:http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-lake-towing-fee-amendment-st-0609-20170608-story.html
The previous blog post Lake considers dropping towing operator fee is courtesy of Apex Towing - Limerick Blog
via Website Feeds http://limerick.apextowing.ie/lake-considers-dropping-towing-operator-fee/

To live in Miami is to constantly feel as if you're trapped in an abandoned David Lynch film. Seminude men with face tattoos rollerblade through traffic in broad daylight, dilapidated buildings could be infested with anything from peacocks to bears to trained circus seals, and flaming boats just sometimes drive down the highway and everyone acts like things are cool.

Earlier this week, an anonymous Imgur user posted a GIF of a navy-blue pickup truck towing a boat on a random highway while the boat spit gigantic flames behind him. A Redditor who goes by iBleedOrange then spotted the clip on the website and posted it to Reddit's r/WTF forum, where the clip then blew up, no pun intended.

It's unclear how old the footage might be, but the GIF was posted online only four days ago. (Redditor iBleedOrange told New Times via direct message that he had no idea who posted the clip originally.)

The only thing more astounding than the clip might be what happened next: A group of Redditors used Google Maps to pinpoint the location where the footage was taken. Naturally, it was Miami-Dade. The clip was filmed directly across the street from Jorge Mas Canosa Middle School on Newton Road in far Southwest Miami-Dade County.

Here's an aerial map. It appears the footage was taken directly in front of the school:

Google Maps

One user, named "ShadyInternets," claimed online that his or her mom drove behind the truck for a few miles and then, buggin out, called her kid:

if that is in miami (trees/houses look like it could be) my mom was down there visiting family and saw it, and followed it lol

she called me freaking out and cracking up. she thought she was losing her mind because she saw it still in the driveway down the street when the dude was hooking it up to the truck. she said it looked like he was unhooking it, but when they turned around to get a better look it was gone.... she then saw the smoke and went towards it and eventually caught up and found him backing the boat into a canal ramp area, then he just sort of sat there next to it while it burned.

she had a few pics and was so happy because she was like, nobody would have believed me if i didnt go back to get a picture! dude apparently lives down the street from my grandma lol

As the saying goes: Pics or it didn't happen, bro. In the meantime, we've reached out to Miami-Dade County Police to see if they have any info about the boat's owner or what in hell happened.

For decades, the parking lot at Rite Aid in West Reading's commercial district has served, for better or worse, as the fallback parking location for patrons of shops and restaurants along Penn Avenue.

Whenever there are no vacant on-street spaces, patrons could often find a spot in the spacious West Reading Center - anchored by the Rite Aid pharmacy and Chef Alan's American Bistro - in the 500 block of Penn Avenue.

TODAY'S SPONSOR:

A brochure published by the West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation even included a capital "P" on the West Reading Shopping Center, giving the impression that it was OK to park there.But if you park your vehicle there and walk to one of the shops, bistros, taverns or craft beer locations along Penn Avenue, you are ignoring the signs posted throughout the shopping center lot advising that it is restricted to customers of the center.Those signs include a message in red print stating that vehicles could be towed at their owners' expense. That is no idle threat, as dozens of patrons have recently discovered.Starting early this year, a towing contractor operating at the behest of the shopping center owner has been hauling vehicles from the lot, often late at night after all the businesses in the center have closed for the day.

The shopping center owner, Chip Lutz, wasn't available for comment. However, one of his tenants, Chef Alan's president Alan Rutter, said in an email:

"The problem with the parking has been brewing for years. This parking lot is a private lot and is owned by Chip Lutz the landlord for the use of the tenants in the shopping center connected to the lot. Those tenants, including myself, pay thousands of dollars per year in leases and for the common area maintenance of the parking lot."The problem, Rutter said, is that many new businesses have been allowed to open in recent years on Penn Avenue with inadequate parking to support them. So, they rely on the shopping center spaces for their customers and employees. This puts a burden on patrons of the shopping center's businesses, who can't always find a parking spaces.

'Killing the goose'

Tavern owners, however, fear that the mass towing equates to "killing the goose that laid the golden egg" for the revitalized business district, which over the last decade or so has become a dining destination.

"It's really, really disheartening, and it's upsetting for me and a lot of restaurant owners in the area," said Mark Woodward, co-owner of West Reading Tavern, 606 Penn Ave.Woodward said that about a month ago, 26 cars were towed between 11 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday. One of the vehicle owners was a friend."They're actually sending like fleets of tow trucks to the parking lot," Woodward said. "We understand it's a private lot, but people have been parking there a long time."A Mohnton woman contacted the Reading Eagle after her car was towed last weekend while she was enjoying a night on the vibrant Penn Avenue strip.When she returned about midnight, a tow truck operator was pulling several vehicles onto a rollback truck. Her car was already gone.She confronted the operator. Come to the impoundment lot during business hours on Monday, the woman said she was told. After insisting she couldn't wait that long, the company agreed to send someone to meet her at the lot, located off the Warren Street Bypass in Reading.The woman also was told that she needed to pay the $250 towing fee in cash or certified check.She took an Uber to the location about 2:30 a.m."Then we stood there, with cash, waiting for someone to show up," she recalled.She got her impounded vehicle that night, but the experience left her frustrated.Woodward said that the borough, while it is not ordering the towing, shoulders some of the blame for the problem because it hasn't planned for off-street parking in the area.Some Penn Avenue business have a few customer parking spaces behind their shops, along Cherry Street, but many people don't know those exist."The borough never addressed the parking situation, that's the biggest thing," Woodward said. "Every Sunday, the West Reading Farmers Market is held directly across from the parking lot that nobody is supposed to use."Woodward delivered that message to borough council in May, when he also distributed 40 fliers titled "Towing the Money" that shows a silhouette of a tow truck hooked to a money bag.

'Victim of success'

Dean L. Rohrbach, manager of the West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation, said West Reading has become a victim of its own success, which has resulted from an investment about 15 years ago in improvements to the sidewalks and streetlights.

The previous owner of the shopping center rarely enforced the parking restriction, Rohrbach said. The property changed hands a few years ago, he said, noting that the new owner "has always been a little peeved that people not using the businesses he rents to are parking there."William Arndt, owner of Arndt's Recovery Solutions, a Robesonia-based company contracted to do the towing, said the issue is no different than if your neighbor threw a party and allowed guests to park in your driveway without asking your permission.According to Arndt, Lutz had West Reading police come out on occasion and cite drivers, but that became a time-consuming burden on the police."So the next step is to tow the vehicles," Arndt said.He denied, however, that the towing is being done exclusively late at night, after all the center's businesses, including Chef Alan's, have closed."We're towing out of there during the day, too," Arndt said, adding that it's usually done in communication with the tenant businesses."We're contracted to do the job, and obviously there's not a lot of companies out there that want to do the job," Arndt said. "I have a lot of angry customers."The issue is they're not patrons of the West Reading Center. A lot of these people are coming back to their vehicle at 12:30, 1, 2 or 3 in the morning. Where were they? At Barley Mow, West Reading Tavern and Chatty Monks, places like that, and it's not right for the property owner to clean up after them."

An issue for borough

Peter Starr, co-owner of The Barley Mow craft beer house at 719 Penn Ave., said some of his good customers recently had their vehicles towed, and he worries about the impact.

With West Reading promoting itself as a good place for the younger crowd, a short-term solution is desperately needed while a long-term solution is pursued, he said."It's certainly not his (the center owner) responsibility to provide parking for the entire Penn Avenue," Starr said. "He is completely within his rights to do that. I don't blame him at all."The best solution, Starr suggested, may be for West Reading to lease part of the shopping center lot."I think it's an issue for the borough to work on," he said.A phone message left with Chatty Monks Brewing Co., a brewpub at 610 Penn Ave., was not returned.West Reading Mayor Valentin Rodriguez Jr. said borough officials are well aware of the problem and are working toward a solution.Borough council's traffic and infrastructure committee will be soon be revisiting the traffic study that was completed in April 2015 by Walker Parking Consultants.The study recommended several options, some of which required further study phases that have yet to be approved. They range from building a parking structure to installing parking meters to ramping up enforcement of two-hour parking limits.Valentin said that there have been preliminary discussions about where to put a parking garage and how to pay for it. The only open space large enough would be the shopping center, which the borough doesn't own.He said another potential solution would be to divert traffic into the surrounding neighborhoods, something that could negatively impact residents."We're displacing our residential parking now with event parking," he said. "There's some pressure there that needs to be looked at. The study is a good start. They're professionals, and it needs to be looked at."

2017 Chevy Silverado HD 2500 6.0L V8
The Super Ike Gauntlet is all about maxing out trucks on the Worlds Toughest Towing Test the Ike Gauntlet. This time its the 6.0-liter Vortecs V8 chance to tackle the 8 mile stretch of highway with a 7% grade on the way up to 11158 feet above sea level.
This 2500 HD double-cab short bed 44 is powered by a 6.0-liter Vortec V8 that is rated at 360 horsepower and 380 lb-ft of torque. Its backed up by a 6-speed automatic transmission. It has several optional packages including the HD Custom package with 20-inch wheels but this WT model still offers very good value at a final MSRP of $44300.
Read more:http://www.tfltruck.com/2017/06/2017-chevy-silverado-hd-2500-work-towing-gooseneck-trailer-video/
2017 CHEVY SILVERADO HD 2500 WORK TRUCK TOWING 13500 LBS UP THE SUPER IKE GAUNTLET is republished from Apex Towing Dublin Blog
via Website Feeds http://dublin.apextowing.ie/2017-chevy-silverado-hd-2500-work-truck-towing-13500-lbs-super-ike-gauntlet/

The Ford F-350 Super Duty pickup truck can tow well over 6 tons and cleans up nice enough to be refined. Pictured March 2017 in Chicago. (Andy Mikonis/Chicago Tribune)
Andy MikonisChicago Tribune
Following up on the all-new F-150 Ford has redesigned the F-250 and F-350 Super Duty with aluminum-intensive construction to not only shave weight for the sake of shaving weight but to parlay that weight savings into strengthening other components.
The configuration of the F-350 tester was a 176-inch wheelbase long-bed crew cab with dual rear wheels as big as you can get without moving to the F-450.Properly testing this rig required an appropriate mission a 900-mile towing trip to pick up a derelict vintage car and bring it back on an 18-foot flatbed trailer.
The F-350 was thoughtfully designed with features to aid towing and hauling. Hook up a trailer and the truck knows offering up trailer status and trip mileage. An array of available cameras are helpful for parking and backing up to a trailer as well as monitoring the load. A really nice feature is a small spotlight near the top of the tailgate that illuminates the trailer hitch area. A deployable step and handle to climb in the bed is so well concealed you wouldn't know it was there if someone didn't tell you; it's a much more elegant execution than Ford's early versions of this idea. And a shoutout to the lockable storage bin under the rear seat. This may be the best idea in pickup interior storage ever.
The loaded trailer would be in the neighborhood of 6000 pounds less than a third of the F-350's stated towing capacity. Running empty to pick up the trailer fuel mileage hovered around the 16.5 mpg range. Surprisingly the mileage dropped to 12 mpg when towing the empty trailer at around 2000 pounds then only dropped a half an mpg or so more with another 4000 pounds of the barn find loaded up. Wind resistance may have more of an effect than weight on fuel mileage when towing. Along with ultralow sulphur diesel fuel diesel exhaust fluid must be added for emissions control. Ford says the Super Duty has the largest DEF tank in the competitive set and in over 1200 miles that needle did not come off of full. Average over a week was 13.0 mpg. The balance when not towing was a mix of highway driving; this barge was not first pick for piloting around town.
It shouldn't be a surprise to read the F-350 towed like the trailer wasn't there. Exceptional braking performance made slowing the load drama-free. Variable steering which changes how many turns of the steering wheel it takes to turn the front wheels based on vehicle speed made maneuvering easy. It was a real pleasure to have this truck for this trip if overkill for the weight involved.
It is amazing how refined heavy-duty trucks have become. A stiffer new frame likely allowed engineers to tune the suspension for a smooth ride. The F-350 has a solid feeling overall.
It had not quite every option but pretty close including technology that has been slow to find its way into pickup trucks. The lane departure warning was too sensitive and too subtle; the slight vibration of the wheel was often impossible to distinguish from the normal vibrations from the ravaged asphalt of our nation's highways. Blind spot monitoring was a welcome feature which adjusts to the length of the trailer up to 33 feet and includes the trailer's blind spot. Adaptive cruise control worked flawlessly even when towing keeping a preset distance upon approaching slower vehicles.
Read more:http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/new/sc-chevy-ford-f350-autoreview-0518-story.html
The previous article Ford F-350 Super Duty is a refined towing beast was originally seen on Apex Towing - Galway Blog
via Website Feeds http://galway.apextowing.ie/ford-f-350-super-duty-refined-towing-beast/

The Ford F-350 Super Duty pickup truck can tow well over 6 tons and cleans up nice enough to be refined. Pictured March 2017 in Chicago. (Andy Mikonis/Chicago Tribune)
Andy MikonisChicago Tribune
Following up on the all-new F-150 Ford has redesigned the F-250 and F-350 Super Duty with aluminum-intensive construction to not only shave weight for the sake of shaving weight but to parlay that weight savings into strengthening other components.
The configuration of the F-350 tester was a 176-inch wheelbase long-bed crew cab with dual rear wheels as big as you can get without moving to the F-450.Properly testing this rig required an appropriate mission a 900-mile towing trip to pick up a derelict vintage car and bring it back on an 18-foot flatbed trailer.
The F-350 was thoughtfully designed with features to aid towing and hauling. Hook up a trailer and the truck knows offering up trailer status and trip mileage. An array of available cameras are helpful for parking and backing up to a trailer as well as monitoring the load. A really nice feature is a small spotlight near the top of the tailgate that illuminates the trailer hitch area. A deployable step and handle to climb in the bed is so well concealed you wouldn't know it was there if someone didn't tell you; it's a much more elegant execution than Ford's early versions of this idea. And a shoutout to the lockable storage bin under the rear seat. This may be the best idea in pickup interior storage ever.
The loaded trailer would be in the neighborhood of 6000 pounds less than a third of the F-350's stated towing capacity. Running empty to pick up the trailer fuel mileage hovered around the 16.5 mpg range. Surprisingly the mileage dropped to 12 mpg when towing the empty trailer at around 2000 pounds then only dropped a half an mpg or so more with another 4000 pounds of the barn find loaded up. Wind resistance may have more of an effect than weight on fuel mileage when towing. Along with ultralow sulphur diesel fuel diesel exhaust fluid must be added for emissions control. Ford says the Super Duty has the largest DEF tank in the competitive set and in over 1200 miles that needle did not come off of full. Average over a week was 13.0 mpg. The balance when not towing was a mix of highway driving; this barge was not first pick for piloting around town.
It shouldn't be a surprise to read the F-350 towed like the trailer wasn't there. Exceptional braking performance made slowing the load drama-free. Variable steering which changes how many turns of the steering wheel it takes to turn the front wheels based on vehicle speed made maneuvering easy. It was a real pleasure to have this truck for this trip if overkill for the weight involved.
It is amazing how refined heavy-duty trucks have become. A stiffer new frame likely allowed engineers to tune the suspension for a smooth ride. The F-350 has a solid feeling overall.
It had not quite every option but pretty close including technology that has been slow to find its way into pickup trucks. The lane departure warning was too sensitive and too subtle; the slight vibration of the wheel was often impossible to distinguish from the normal vibrations from the ravaged asphalt of our nation's highways. Blind spot monitoring was a welcome feature which adjusts to the length of the trailer up to 33 feet and includes the trailer's blind spot. Adaptive cruise control worked flawlessly even when towing keeping a preset distance upon approaching slower vehicles.
Read more:http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/new/sc-chevy-ford-f350-autoreview-0518-story.html
The previous blog post Ford F-350 Super Duty is a refined towing beast is courtesy of ApexTowing - Galway
via Website Feeds http://galway.apextowing.ie/ford-f-350-super-duty-refined-towing-beast/

2017 Chevy Silverado HD 2500 6.0L V8
The Super Ike Gauntlet is all about maxing out trucks on the Worlds Toughest Towing Test the Ike Gauntlet. This time its the 6.0-liter Vortecs V8 chance to tackle the 8 mile stretch of highway with a 7% grade on the way up to 11158 feet above sea level.
This 2500 HD double-cab short bed 44 is powered by a 6.0-liter Vortec V8 that is rated at 360 horsepower and 380 lb-ft of torque. Its backed up by a 6-speed automatic transmission. It has several optional packages including the HD Custom package with 20-inch wheels but this WT model still offers very good value at a final MSRP of $44300.
Read more:http://www.tfltruck.com/2017/06/2017-chevy-silverado-hd-2500-work-towing-gooseneck-trailer-video/
The following article 2017 CHEVY SILVERADO HD 2500 WORK TRUCK TOWING 13500 LBS UP THE SUPER IKE GAUNTLET is republished from dublin.apextowing.ie/
via Website Feeds http://dublin.apextowing.ie/2017-chevy-silverado-hd-2500-work-truck-towing-13500-lbs-super-ike-gauntlet/

Anderson’s Towing Vice President Duane Thompson, left, and Billy Myers of Myers Towing say new Modesto city fees will put the financial burden of unclaimed vehicles on them.

It could cost drivers a lot more when they get their cars towed after Modesto police officers cite them on suspicion of DUI, driving on a suspended license and other driving-related offenses.

Drivers now pay a $160 administrative fee at the Police Department to get their vehicles back. The towing companies charge drivers $215 for the tow and $39 a day for storing the car. But some of those amounts would go up under a proposal a Modesto City Council committee will hear Monday. The proposal is for a three-year contract between the city and the towing companies that would replace the current one that ends in April.

The Great Safe Neighborhoods Committee meeting is open to the public. The committee will not make the final decision on the proposed contract but could recommend the full council approve it.

Several towing companies don’t like other changes in the proposal, which include putting the responsibility of collecting the city fee and determining whether a vehicle can be released on them. Police Lt. Aaron Tait said Modesto is working with the companies to address their concerns.

But first the higher costs to drivers. The proposal calls for drivers to pay a variable administrative fee, from $160 for being an unlicensed driver or letting the registration expire to $250 for driving on a suspended license and $450 for a DUI. The cost of a tow rises to $220, but storage jumps to $65 a day.

Tait said he understands drivers don’t like paying these costs. But he said the California Vehicle Code allows cities to charge a fee to cover their costs.

He said the fees are based on a 2006 study that has been updated to reflect the department’s current costs. The update shows the Police Department could charge $391 to have a vehicle towed when officers arrest the driver. The breakdown for the fee includes the officer’s time on scene, the time to write a report, time spent by clerical staff, the time for supervisors to review the records and overhead. The breakdown even includes $3.35 for office supplies.

A city report says Modesto has charged $160 since 2006. Tait said Modesto has not charged what it could, in part because of the Great Recession and in part because of the city’s demographics. “We are not an affluent area,” he said. “We don’t want to punish first-time offenders.”

Tait said the most common reasons Modesto police have a car towed is the driver does not have a license or the license has been suspended. He said the police had about 2,700 cars towed in 2015 and about 2,500 in 2014.

The police have discretion in some cases when deciding whether to have a car towed. They can in some circumstances have a family member take the vehicle or leave it as long as it is legally parked in a safe area. Modesto defense attorney Aaron Villalobos said he is concerned that higher administrative fees could give police an incentive to tow more vehicles. “Their discretion is huge,” he said.

Tait said the proposed contract is expected to increase the annual revenue flowing into the Police Department’s traffic offender fund from about $300,000 to $500,000. But he stressed officers will not be more inclined to have cars towed. “That’s my direction when we roll with this,” he said. “You try every effort to get someone to pick up the vehicle.”

The proposal includes the towing companies using a software program from a company called Dispatching and Tracking Solutions and pay DTS $12 to $25 per vehicle towed, according to a city report. Modesto will not pay DTS anything. But the towing companies will no longer pay the city a $60 administrative fee every time they tow a vehicle at the request of the police. Tait said the DTS program would replace an antiquated 1998 system.

The Modesto Bee contacted the roughly dozen towing companies that contract with Modesto to perform these tows. Nearly all of them said they do not like the proposed contract. One declined to comment and a couple could not be reached for comment.

The new contract calls for a driver to pay everything he owes, including the city administrative fee, to the towing company. The company also determines whether the driver meets the criteria to have the vehicle released to him.

“I think they are placing the responsibility on our shoulders and it should fall on the Police Department’s,” said Mike Reeves, one of the owners of Scenic Towing.

Reeves is concerned about the potential for an ugly exchange between one of his employees and a driver. But Tait said police will train the towing companies on when they can release a vehicle. He said officers will give drivers whose vehicles are towed a piece of paper saying how much it will cost to get their vehicles back.

“We will let them know up front,” he said. “All the anger will be taken out on the front end.”

Anderson’s Towing’s Duane Thompson said the proposal puts the financial burden on the towing companies. For instance, he said, the companies have to pay the administrative release fees even if they do not collect them from the drivers. He estimated only about a third of drivers who have their cars towed retrieve them.

Tait said the towing companies don’t have to tow cars for the police. He added the companies can recoup their costs through what they make by selling vehicles that are not claimed to wrecking yards or to new owners if the cars are in good shape. But Thompson said Tait does not know the towing business. “We’ll sell some cars for $500 or $1,000 but also send a lot of cars to the wrecking yard for $100,” he said.

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Crews have been out all night trying to clear the snow.

Tow truck drivers have also been hard at work.

Dozens of cars were stuck on the side of the road for slide-offs or crashes.

McDonald's Towing says when they saw the weather coming, they called in the troops, prepping for double the amount of calls they usually get.

"We tried to prepare better with scheduling employees and getting our trucks in line so all of them were in ready condition and ready for the storm," said McDonald's Towing Operations Manager Zach Clothier.

McDonald's Towing says they responded to about 50 calls Sunday night, and they didn't expect things to slow down.

KALAMAZOO Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Snow plows and tow trucks are out in full force across West Michigan.
Newschannel 3's Nicky Zizaza caught up with some tow truck drivers working to clear drivers stranded along roadways.
Phone calls have been pouring in to McDonalds Towing following the heavy snowfall around West Michigan where slick conditions and snow showers made for a busy afternoon and evening for tow truck companies.
McDonalds Towing has responded to more than 150 calls following this weekend's snow showers and with chaotic road conditions tow truck drivers said they have to be especially careful because they can end up in an accident during a recovery.
In this kind of weather with an influx of call they ask commuters to pay extra attention and make way for them.
Zach Clothier the operations manager at McDonalds Towing said "We have large equipment lots of lights. If you can give us space to do our job and do it safely that would make us more comfortable on the road and most likely be able to do our job in a quicker response time."
By 3:30 p.m. on Sunday McDonalds towing had responded to more than 50 calls and with the snow expected to continue throughout the night they don't see things slowing down.
Spots on the roads remain slick and drivers should drive defensively but stay home unless you have to get out.
If you do have to drive Michigan State Police has tips for drivers:
Leave at least four seconds of space between you and the car in front of you.
Be careful at intersections where moisture from exhaust can quickly freeze making these spots especially icy.
Steer into the skid if you start to slide don't panic take your foot off the gas.
Don't pump breaks - if you have anti-lock brakes do not pump them use firm pressure until you come to a stop
Don't get out of your car stay put and call for help.
Read more:http://wwmt.com/news/local/tow-trucks-keep-busy-on-terrible-roads
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Although most of us anglers live for the days we can take our boats to our favorite fishing holes and see what's biting, there's always a sense of relief at the end of the day when we safely back the boat into the garage.

That's because towing anything adds a profound element of risk to the driving experience. You might be cautious and aware while towing your boat, but that doesn't mean some knuckle-headed pedestrian isn't going to be looking at his cell phone on the sidewalk where you like to drive.

Just like in regular driving, while towing a boat, you'll occasionally have to stop short, change lanes and weave to miss obstructions.

That latter action can prove costly if your boat isn't fitted to your trailer properly or the gear you put in it for travel isn't forward of the axle.

The video above demonstrates why you want to put weight toward the tongue and not in the rear while towing.

LAKE GEORGE — Some of the most powerful vehicles cruising on the nation’s highways pulled into Lake George this weekend, and both their beauty and brawn wowed a crowd of tourists and residents.

The Empire State Towing & Recovery Association’s 34th annual “Tow Show” was held June 3-4 in Lake George’s Festival Commons, and the show hosted a half-dozen massive heavy-duty recovery tow trucks as well as conventional versions.

Equipped with booms 35 feet in length or higher and up to 22 wheels, these sow trucks have 65- to 75-ton capacities and can pick up an overturned 18-wheeler and put it back upright.

Such metallic muscle wasn’t all that impressed the gathered tow truck drivers and the public this weekend. It was also the chrome, custom paint jobs and decorative lighting as well as the impressive hulk and hydraulics.

ESTRA Tow Show’s annual “Beauty Contest” awarded prizes to towing operators in various categories, including the big rigs’ exterior and interior appearance as well as engine detailing as well as lighting arrays. Huge recovery trucks worth up to $800,000 were entered in the show.

Named Grand Champion in the beauty contest was a fully restored 1940 GMC tow truck with original rigging owned by 87-year-old Joe Lomanto of Clinton Collision. Lomanto started out towing vehicles in the mid-1950s using merely a chain and a hand-winch and now his firm operates a fleet of trucks based in Clinton New York including massive recovery vehicles.

About three dozen other trucks were entered in the tow truck beauty show. Lomanto took home three first-prize trophies for his entries.

Tow truck operators — and their vehicles — from Maine to Pennsylvania attended this annual convention of towing and recovery personnel, ESTRA’s president Tom Brennan said.

The tow show featured activities and attributes for tow truck drivers like seminars on effective towing techniques, networking opportunities, and exhibits by recovery vehicle and towing equipment vendors.

The tow show’s return to Lake George after several years of being held in Queensbury is a welcome change, Brennan said, noting that Mayor Bob Blais convinced his organization to come back to Lake George this year.

LAKE GEORGE — Some of the most powerful vehicles cruising on the nation’s highways pulled into Lake George this weekend, and both their beauty and brawn wowed a crowd of tourists and residents.

The Empire State Towing & Recovery Association’s 34th annual “Tow Show” was held June 3-4 in Lake George’s Festival Commons, and the show hosted a half-dozen massive heavy-duty recovery tow trucks as well as conventional versions.

Equipped with booms 35 feet in length or higher and up to 22 wheels, these sow trucks have 65- to 75-ton capacities and can pick up an overturned 18-wheeler and put it back upright.

Such metallic muscle wasn’t all that impressed the gathered tow truck drivers and the public this weekend. It was also the chrome, custom paint jobs and decorative lighting as well as the impressive hulk and hydraulics.

ESTRA Tow Show’s annual “Beauty Contest” awarded prizes to towing operators in various categories, including the big rigs’ exterior and interior appearance as well as engine detailing as well as lighting arrays. Huge recovery trucks worth up to $800,000 were entered in the show.

Named Grand Champion in the beauty contest was a fully restored 1940 GMC tow truck with original rigging owned by 87-year-old Joe Lomanto of Clinton Collision. Lomanto started out towing vehicles in the mid-1950s using merely a chain and a hand-winch and now his firm operates a fleet of trucks based in Clinton New York including massive recovery vehicles.

About three dozen other trucks were entered in the tow truck beauty show. Lomanto took home three first-prize trophies for his entries.

Tow truck operators — and their vehicles — from Maine to Pennsylvania attended this annual convention of towing and recovery personnel, ESTRA’s president Tom Brennan said.

The tow show featured activities and attributes for tow truck drivers like seminars on effective towing techniques, networking opportunities, and exhibits by recovery vehicle and towing equipment vendors.

The tow show’s return to Lake George after several years of being held in Queensbury is a welcome change, Brennan said, noting that Mayor Bob Blais convinced his organization to come back to Lake George this year.

(House of Digital/Bigstock)
Philadelphia is cracking down on predatory towing.
Right now truck drivers in Philadelphia only have to take a picture of an illegally parked car before hauling it off to an impound lot. But thanks to a bill passed by City Council Thursday they'll soon have to wait for a police or parking authority officer to ticket the car first.
For years city officials have received complaints from drivers who say their cars were towed from legal spots.
"There is grand auto theft happening in the city every day" saidCouncilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez who sponsored the bill.
But towing company owners argued that having to wait for an officer will cut down on the volume of their businesses.
Anthony Kitt was one of several tow truck drivers from Philadelphia who showed up at City Hall asking council to delay the vote.
"You have a bill being passed that goes against everybody when they know who the bad guys are" Kitt said. "The names have been blasted all over the news. They have video of what's going on. And you affect the lives and lifestyles of a lot of people behind the bad doings of a few."
Instead of putting off the vote Quiñones-Sánchez agreed to delay enforcement of the new rule for 30 days once it's signed by the mayor.
She said the city will create a hotline so tow truck drivers can call one of the nine law enforcement agencies authorized for ticketing illegally parked cars under the bill and get a faster response.
"But in the interim the bad actors continue to steal cars and this is about protecting consumers right now" she said.
All of the agencies involved will meet on Tuesday to get down to work Quiñones-Sánchez said.
Read more:http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/99569-philadelphia-cracking-down-on-predatory-towing
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Bear in mind that everything takes longer when you’re towing, so give yourself more room.

Johannesburg – Anybody who’s ever tried to reverse a trailer knows that towing is not as simple as it looks.

Yet if you have a Class B driving licence you can legally tow anything up to 750kg without any relevant training or qualifications.

Nevertheless, towing even a little ‘Ventertjie’ will affect the acceleration, braking and maneuverability of your car, and will magnify the effect of any mistakes you do make.

So we asked Masterdrive boss Eugene Herbert – who at one time held the world land speed record for towing a caravan, so he should know what he’s talking about – for his advice, and here are his tips for towing:

BEFORE YOU GO:

If you’ve never towed before, get some training; at the very least take the trailer down to an empty car park and get a feel for how your car accelerates, brakes and steers with it attached.

Check that the trailer is roadworthy; if it’s been standing long enough for the tyres to get really flat, their sidewalls may have cracked, and just pumping them up will just make them more dangerous.

Check that the bearings are well greased, especially on boat trailers or if you live near the sea. Then get one of the kids to stand behind the trailer while you check the tail-lights and indicators.

Weight – and weight distribution – are most important, especially the gross and tow bar weights. Incorrect weighting can cause sway, so distribute it evenly, with heavier items in front of the axle.

On a caravan, empty the water tanks before you leave and refill them when you get there – which will also ensure that the water is fresh!

Secure the hitch with a pin or lock and cross the safety chains under the tow-hitch in an X shape. That way, if the trailer or caravan comes off the hitch while towing, it should drop onto the chains, giving you a chance to stop the bus before it goes its own way.

ON THE ROAD:

Bear in mind that everything takes longer when you’re towing: accelerating, slowing down and overtaking, so give yourself more room and be aware of faster vehicles.

Take corners later and sharper to avoid clipping the curb with the inside wheel of the trailer.

Higher speeds increase wind resistance, stressing the car and and the trailer – and burning extra fuel. Moderate speeds give better control and reduce sway, so allow for extra time on the road and take it easy.

If the trailer does start to sway, don’t try to steer out of it; gradually slow down until everything is back in line. Sudden turns can cause more sway, and slamming on the brakes can cause the trailer to jackknife.If it happens again, stop and check the cause; you may have to repack the caravan or trailer to redistribute the weight.

Every time you stop for a break, walk around the trailer or caravan for problems. And every time you stop for fuel, check the tyre pressures; they will be higher than when you left because the tyres get hot while running, but they should be the same on each side. If not, you may have a slow leak, which will require careful monitoring.

The new law will seek to guarantee that vehicles being towed were parked illegally. But cars parked illegally at Philadelphia hospitals can be towed without police or PPA approval.

Tow truck drivers told 6ABC that the bill is unfair and punishes the towing industry as a whole, instead of punishing a handful of operators engaging in predatory towing or bait-and-trap schemes.

"How could those who do parking lot and driveway enforcement be predatory, when it's the property owner, or the management company, who is calling us to tow these vehicles," Lew Blum of Lew Blum Towing told the news station. "They have us mixed up with another part of the industry."

The big question that remains is how the city will enforce the new rule in 30 days. Truck drivers told NBC10 that they're not sure how long it'll take police to issue tickets or who even to call.

The city Department of Licenses & Inspection won't be able to handle the volume on its own, which is why the city plans on contracting with a third party.

The bill's passing comes months after numerous drivers said that they were victims of an alleged bait-and-trap towing scheme in South Philadelphia in August.

The story was similar for many – the drivers would park at a seemingly open spot on South Broad Street and Washington Avenue. But on their return, the car would be gone with a "no parking" sign from George Smith Towing suddenly in place where their vehicle had been parked.

Facebook videos posted by Chris Norman who lives above the allegedly targeted spot have documented a handful of incidents.

Philadelphia city council approved a measure on Thursday aimed at cracking down down on 'rogue' tow truck drivers.

That legislation is designed to reign in an industry that, some say, steals cars off the street through various, unscrupulous tactics.

An Action News Investigation exposed a number of shady practices earlier this year.

The plan would make tow truck drivers wait until a vehicle has a parking ticket before they can remove it.

Earlier in the day, independent two truck drivers lined the streets outside City Hall with their vehicles, blocking a lane of traffic.

They were there to protest legislation that they consider to be unfair.

The bill's backers say it is a measure to crack down on rogue drivers, or private companies that remove cars that are not parked illegally.

"It's hard to legislate for bad actors and we know that and we're committed to working with the industry and, as a city, doing our part to come up with a better system. But in the interim, we've got to stop what we've blatantly seen, which is some folks stealing cars," said Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez.

The measure passed 15-1 despite the concerted opposition from legitimate drivers and a key council member.

"I understand her good intentions, but the devil's in the details, and these independent contractors who are tax paying, law abiding, non-predatory, are in business. As we try to fix something, they're going to put them out of business," said Councilman Curtis Jones.

"We do everything we need to do as far as paying L&I for our licenses, paying taxes, hiring people in the city of Philadelphia, and it's pretty much going totally against us," said Anthony Kitt of Kitt's Towing. "We have no say and no option."

Even high profile, long-established, big money tow truck operators were at City Hall to protest the towing industry reforms.

"How could those who do parking lot and driveway enforcement be predatory, when it's the property owner, or the management company, who is calling us to tow these vehicles," said Lew Blum of Lew Blum Towing. "They have us mixed-up with another part of the industry."

Randy Harvey Photo
With a network of cables extending to a trio of tow trucks a 120000 pound Caterpillar excavator is slowly brought up the banks of Trout Creek were it got stuck while working on the construction of a new bridge to replace a culvert washed out during last Julys flooding. The exploit won Tomlinson Towing a spot on the cover of Towing Times Magazine.
In a career that spanned more than 60 years Bill Tomlinson has been called on many times to contend with recovery and tow jobs the likes of which most tow operations will never see.
Our motto has been If it flies floats or rolls we can handle it said Tomlinson who retired from Tomlinsons Towing in January of 2014 after operating the business since 1966.
He originally bought the business from his father who started it in 1946 and sold it to Dean Zifko who continues as the businesss current owner.
During his tenure Tomlinson has an unmatched record of success in recovery and towing.
We never turned any work down and we never came home empty he said with evident pride. We had a standing offer if we dont pull it we dont charge. But weve never done one for nothing.
This summer as work proceeded at top speed to replace a pair of bridges on State Highway 13 south of Ashland that record was challenged by a difficult recovery that was literally one for the books.
At about 10 a.m. on Aug. 30 Tomlinson Manager Brenda Hebert got a call from a road crew supervisor asking if the firm could assist in recovering a piece of equipment that had sunk in the mud at the construction site at Trout Brook near North York about 16 miles south of Ashland.
I asked the usual questions Hebert said. Where is it whats the problem what type of equipment? When the supervisor told me it was a 120000 pound excavator I sat up straight in my chair
Hebert asked how deep the excavator had sunk in the mud.
Real deep was the reply.
At first tow operator Brandon Bowers went to the scene to scope out the problem only to be told that the construction company would try using their own equipment to haul the stuck excavator out of a 12-foot hole.
That didnt work real well said Tomlinson. The only thing they accomplished was sinking it two feet deeper..
At that point the contracting firm admitted defeat and called Tomlinson again.
Just do what you have to; I need this out said the exasperated supervisor.
Zifko began to assemble a recovery team and called on the grand old man of Ashland towing and recovery Bill Tomlinson and his son Bob to lend a hand.
When the crew arrived at the scene one road crew worker looked at the trio of smaller wreckers and snorted derisively What are you going to do with those Tonka Trucks?
Bob Tomlinson replied that he aimed to get the excavator out.
The man laughed and told Bob he was wasting his time.
Ive never walked away from a job I havent finished Bob replied.
What Tomlinson knew and the construction crew didnt understand is that recovery isnt simply a matter of brute force yanking a vehicle out. Rather it is a symphony of applied pressure in the right spots.
Its all about mechanical advantage Tomlinson said recalling the words of the Greek mathematician physicist and engineer Archimedes who said Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world.
Its true there are much larger trucks out there than what we had but if you dont know how to run them they are worthless Tomlinson said. Its knowing what to do.
Leverage is the key. The block-and-tackle mechanism of a tow truck uses the law of leverage to increase the power applied to a recovery problem. When the force is spread out over key points smaller equipment can accomplish amazing results.
At our annual tool show we took an empty tractor/trailer and laid it on its side and rigged it up using a block and tackle. Then we had 12 10-year-old kids six on each line and they pulled it over by hand Tomlinson said.
In this case using a D-6 Bulldozer as an anchor point and an estimated 19 lines connecting the entire rig some 253000 pounds of force was exerted to slowly oh so slowly pull the enormous excavator up the hill.
It was a demonstration of how to use applied physics to succeed but that didnt mean it was easy.
In a grade like that with all that suction it pulled hard Tomlinson said.
In the end despite a minor setback and some re-rigging the excavator was brought up out of the hole.
Everybody was amazed Tomlinson said.
The whole exercise had taken just four hours.
Bill and Bob Tomlinson both said it was the biggest job they had ever undertaken.
Word of the tour de force reached Tow Times magazine the International publication for the towing and recovery industry. They got the story and pictures of the recovery.
Usually they put pictures of fancy towing trucks on the cover this time they put the excavator recovery on it Bill Tomlinson said.
For a tow and recovery man getting the cover of Tow Times is akin to making the cover of the Rolling Stone for a rock star.
I went to the post office and saw the envelope and I was anxious to see if they had the story in this month and there it was right on the cover he said. I was astonished to say the least. Weve been in Tow Times a number of times but never on the front cover.
Material from Tow Times was used in the creation of this report.
Read more:http://www.apg-wi.com/ashland_daily_press/news/excavator-extraction-lands-tomlinson-s-towing-on-cover-of-tow/article_3d7da9d6-b775-11e6-b03f-7b2949f137bb.html
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Nissan Motors Japan has successfully introduced Intelligent Vehicle Towing (IVT), a fully-automated towing system at its Oppama production plant.

The IVT system uses a modified Nissan Leaf electric vehicle to autonomously tow trollies which carry finished cars between designated loading and unloading areas within the plant.

Unlike conventional automatic guided vehicle systems for transporting parts, which often require the installation of rails or extensive use of magnetic tape, this system does not need any special infrastructure to operate.

The towing car is equipped with an array of cameras and laser scanners that detect lane markings, kerbs and potential obstacles or hazards around the vehicle. By cross-referencing this information with map data, the towing car calculates its own location, negotiating the route to its destination unaided. The towing car travels within the speed limits of the factory, and automatically stops if it detects an obstacle or hazard ahead, before setting off again when it has determined that the road ahead is clear.

The towing route can be altered to accommodate changes in production processes or vehicle transport routes. All driverless towing cars are connected to a central traffic control system, which can monitor the location, driving speed, remaining battery and operational status of each vehicle. When two driverless towing cars meet at an intersection, the control system’s algorithm determines which car should be given right-of-way, and in the case of emergency, the system can stop the vehicles remotely.

The Oppama Plant’s existing logistics system requires finished vehicles to be transported from the end of the production line to the facility’s dedicated wharf by a team of drivers, at which point they are loaded onto ships. With the introduction of the IVT system, Nissan hopes to improve production efficiency.

Trial operations of the system began roughly a year ago and more than 1,600 test runs have been carried out at the plant. The data acquired has been utilised to ensure that the system can operate reliably within the plant’s premises.

A safety system and a fail-safe system have been developed to counter potential risks or unexpected conditions the IVT system may face during autonomous driving, including adverse weather and low light conditions.

Nissan's continued testing at the Oppama Plant provides an effective testbed for further implementation at other manufacturing facilities both in and outside of Japan. This new project, which utilises mapping and communication technologies to link an intelligent, all-electric car to surrounding infrastructures and is a step towards realising Nissan’s Intelligent Integration aspirations.

1Nissan testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan (AP)
Nissan is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to a wharf for loading on transport ships.
The tests also can add to knowledge needed to take such autonomous driving onto public roads.
Nissan executive Haruhiko Yoshimura said the company hoped to use the technology throughout the Oppama plant by 2019 and in overseas plants in the future.
During a demonstration a Leaf car with no one inside drove along the road pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it stopped properly for other vehicles and then veered into a car park.
But one vehicle ran into trouble refused to move and was not able to take part in the demonstration.
Kazuhiro Doi a Nissan vice-president acknowledged such glitches showed a challenge unique to the technology.
"If there are drivers they can take action" he said. "Mechanical operations are all there is in a driverless car."
People still had to get inside each of the towed vehicles to drive them to the proper wharf but Nissan hopes that as self-driving technology advances cars will drive themselves into the ships on their own.
Driverless cars are still not allowed on regular public roads in Japan although major carmakers are all working on such technology. Driverless driving is legal within private facilities such as Nissan's.
Nissan allied with Renault SA of France has been carrying out tests with driverless towing since last year.
Read more:http://www.independent.ie/world-news/nissan-demonstrates-driverless-cars-towing-other-vehicles-at-plant-in-japan-35268844.html
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ENGLEWOOD The City Council unanimously introduced an amendmentto its towing ordinance Tuesday setting higher tow fees for some vehicles andrequiring minimum lot sizes for tow operatorson city business.
Under the proposal city-licensed operatorsmust respond to calls within 20 minutes; three missed or late calls makes the towersubject to losing its license. The amendment also says towers must have a secure lot big enough to house 25 cars.
The amendment also changes the fee schedule so that towing companies can charge:
a single flat fee of$120 up from $95for Class 1 vehicles up to 6000 pounds;
a single flat fee of $160for Class 2 vehicles between 6001 and 12000 pounds;
$300 per hour for heavy-duty vehicles between 12001 and 26000 pounds;
$400 per hour for vehicles larger than 26001 pounds.
The City Council discussing amending an ordinance on towing.(Photo: Viorel Florescu/NorthJersey.com)
The amendment adjusts a measureadopted in November which set a 20-minute limit but a minimum lot size to hold 10 cars. The ordinance was based on recommendations made in May. Amore recent proposalby Police Chief Lawrence Suffern and Sgt. Robert Zimmerman which stipulated a 15-minute limit and a lot size for 50 cars was not received by the clerk in time for the November action.
During a Nov. 30 special meeting to discuss the amendment the council tweaked the minimum lot size to allow for 25 cars so as not to exclude one of the borough's six applicants.
Read more:http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/englewood/2016/12/06/englewood-unveils-revisions-towing-ordinance/95048144/
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If you’re thinking about doing some towing, and you also think that all the concern over weight distribution on the trailer is a load of crap perpetrated by the weight-distribution lobby, then I really suggest you watch this little video. Because what’s funny with toys is terrifying in reality.

This demonstration, which seems to come from the Ontario Police Commercial Vehicle Committee, is so wonderfully simple and effective. The little Mustang (the tow vehicle of choice for most discriminating towers) is pulling a trailer with two sets of weights: one at the front, one at the rear.

When more of the weight is at the front, things remain quite stable. Even a shove at the rear of the trailer by a massive Hand of God can’t really do all that much to discombobulate the trailer.

But once more weight is placed at the rear, that little lateral shove starts all kinds of pendulum-like swinging and trouble; it’s amazing how rapidly the system gets uncontrollable.

This is even likely less bad than a full-scale, real-world situation would be, because that conveyer belt is going at a steady, constant speed, and the car’s front wheels remain rigidly straight. In reality, once the swinging starts, the Mustang driver would likely be alternating cranking the wheel in a panic while jamming on the brakes, taking some time between these two acts to lavishly soil their pants.

So, take it from some toys on a conveyer belt: be careful how you distribute the weight of what you tow!

Also, it’s probably good there weren’t a bunch of Lego minifigs on the side of that conveyer belt, or that toy Mustang would have tried to plow them down.

The industry has opposed some parts of the bill as it also limits the number of hours tow-truck drivers can work per day.

“Tow truck drivers, we don’t make money every day. We only make money per call,” said tow truck driver Zoli Burka.

“A lot of the time, tow truck drivers are sitting around doing nothing. We work as we get our tows. We’re not like big truckers where we’re driving constantly.”

The law also requires operators to get permission from consumers before providing tow and storage services, accept credit card payments, and to make towing rates clearly visible before receiving payment.

“Regulating our industry, yes it needs it because there are bad apples in our industry like any industry,” said Burka.

“We’re ok with some of the bill. A lot of us already accept credit cards. Our issue is our hours of operations. Don’t attack us for that.”

Toronto police say tow truck drivers are expected to arrive at Queen’s Park around 9:30 a.m. and encircle the south lawn of the provincial legislature from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

A similar protest on Dec. 9, 2014 caused massive headaches for motorists as tow trucks surrounded the grounds of Queen’s Park.

An Ohio insurer trade groups says a bill introduced into the General Assembly would help rein in the predatory practices of some towing business operators in the state.

The primary focus of House Bill 341, introduced by Reps. Ron Young and Martin Sweeney, was to provide towing businesses and storage facilities the ability to more easily obtain the titles of abandoned vehicles in order to sell them, according to the Ohio Insurance Institute.

However, the House State Government Committee amended HB 341 to include a number of consumer protections, several of which were part of HB 382 from last session, the OII said.

According to the OII, House Bill 341 includes the following provisions for the protection of Ohio consumers:

No towing service can remove a vehicle from a private tow-away zone without a contract.

Towers must accept credit cards for drop fees. Drop fees are applied when a tower hooks up a car, prior to its actual removal. Under this bill, the operator is to release the car for half the cost of the tow and accept credit card payment.

Tow companies must conduct an Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle vehicle search for the owner of a towed vehicle within five business days of the car being towed. Upon identification of the vehicle owner or lienholder, the tow truck entity would then have five days to notify them of the location of their vehicle. This protects consumers by prohibiting tow companies from storing cars for weeks at a time, racking up storage fees against the vehicle owner.

Vehicle owners would have the option to take a towing company to civil court for any major or minor violation the tower has committed against them, such as charging more than is statutorily allowed.

The OII said that some Ohio tow truck operators have instituted the practice of padding their bill when an insurance company is known to be involved in the recovery process.

To counter these practices, HB 341 was also amended by the House State Government Committee to create the “Towing and Quick Clear Board,” which would have authority to hear and rule on towing-related invoice disputes between an auto insurer and a tow truck operator.

OII members and the Association of Professional Towers Ohio support the Towing and Quick Clear Board solution as a means to challenge unreasonable towing and storage fees and facilitate timely release of a vehicle to its owner or repair shop.

OII has commended the towing industry for their desire to weed-out the few operators who give the entire industry a black eye.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A west side business owner is asking every driver to be on the lookout for a stolen, one-of-a-kind tow truck.

Monday morning, when Ted Green showed up to work he noticed that the fence in front of his car shop was destroyed; pieces were even thrown into 16th Street.

“This section here is bent, which actually has to go back to the third pole. This one has to go all the way back to the 5th pole. I mean it just destroyed my whole front row here,” said Ted Green, town truck owner.

Green quickly noticed how the gate was damaged. Thieves used his tow truck to plow through and take off.

“For someone to just come and take that from us, that’s just a punch in the face,” said Green.

The tow truck is black with neon green lettering that says "Ted’s Auto Care" on each side. Green says this tow truck is the only one that looks like this.

“Even if you’re standing a mile away and seen it coming. You’re going to look, I mean it’s a big truck and it’s noticeable,” said Green.

Within a matter of minutes this car shop is out more than $20,000. The stolen tow truck cuts their fleet in half.

“We’re losing anywhere from $300-$600 a day from the tow truck,” said Green.

Green told us he has security cameras, but the thieves actually turned the one that would’ve captured the crime.

“I don’t know what they took the truck for. I don’t know if they took it for parts. I don’t know if they’re out trying to steal each other’s vehicles. It could be anything,” said Green.

Green does know all it takes is for the thieves to make one wrong turn and for someone to see it and to turn them in.

“It’s just an honest thing to do for somebody to call and report that,” said Green.

A Surrey man is fuming after ICBC refused to cover the damage a tow truck caused to his beloved 1992 Buick Roadmaster.

Fabian Galick, who works in security in the film business, was driving to Hope to meet up with a friend on Aug. 2, when his prized 24-year-old car with a 350-cubic-inch V8 engine blew a transmission line, which left him stranded at the side of the highway about 11 kilometres out of Hope.

Galick, 48, called his brother and asked him to call a tow truck to pick up to take it back to Surrey for repairs.

When the car arrived home, Galick was stunned to see extensive damage to the undercarriage, sides and bumper. Most perplexing, a wheel had fallen off.

“He did a lot of damage,” Galick said of the tow-truck operator. “It will be in the thousands to fix.”

Galick suspects the wheel fell off when the car was hooked up backwards and the driver began to head to Surrey. “”You do not tow a car backwards that has knock-off rims,” he said. “He hooked it up backwards and destroyed it.”

Once he figured out the extent of the damage, Galick said he made a claim with ICBC.

But he was later told his policy did not cover the damage from the tow truck.

He was told he would have to go after tow-truck company Bear Paws Towing and Recovery Ltd., in a civil action, despite his understanding he was covered if there was damage to the car when it was being towed.

“They said I have no coverage and I’ll have to sue,” Galick said of the claim.

But the big thing he said is the danger motorists faced when the self-tightening wheel fell off while the car was in tow. “Every tow truck driver is supposed to know how knock-off wheels work,” he said.

Jeff Potts, part-owner of Bear Paws Towing and Recovery Ltd., said he takes full responsibility for the damage in the tow.

“We’re going to pay him,” Potts said. “It was a bad judgment call on my part, “ said Potts of the tow.

“It is not his fault. I will square up with him.”

An ICBC official would not discuss the case, but instead pointed out people need to do their research when they call a tow-truck company. ICBC recommends hiring a tow-truck company that is one of their “suppliers."

In B.C., it is mandatory for towing companies to purchase a “garage policy” from ICBC.

If there isn’t negligence by the tow-truck operator, the customer’s own optional insurance coverage could cover damages.

And if the damage isn’t covered under an ICBC policy, the driver can pursue a legal claim with the tow company.

Galick said after a month he has yet to see any financial compensation and wants to warn other motorists to check their ICBC policy and the tow truck’s standing with ICBC before hiring them.

“There are so many things going on here,” Galick said of the problems he encountered with what he thought was a routine tow.

This idiotic driver was stopped by police after he tried to tow a flatbed truck by wedging the front in the boot of his car - and securing it with just one strap.
The motorist removed the front wheels doors and engine from the truck to lighten the load and hoisted it into the rear of his grey hatchback.
He then lashed the two together with a single blue strap and set off along the road in Gloucester where police stopped him.
Gloucestershire Police officers tweeted a photo of the potentially dangerous combination.
They added: "Photos of a stop by one of our units in Gloucester - car towing a car with a van strapped on the back.
"The van was quite literally strapped to the car. Driver reported for dangerous condition. No lights too."
Reported: Gloucestershire Police warned others not to copy the driver (Photo: Gloucestershire Police/PA Wire)
Read original:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/idiotic-driver-tried-tow-truck-6107818Call us if you need a tow truck
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JOLIET The ninth annual Worldwide Equipment Sales LLC Tow Trucks for Tots parade will take place Sunday and will begin in Joliet according to a news release about the event.
Tow trucks from all over the United States will begin lining up at 6 a.m. at the Hollywood Casino Joliet 777 Hollywood Blvd.
The parade will leave the casino at 9 a.m. and led by the Illinois State Police it will travel west onto Route 6 to Interstate 55 to Harlem Avenue to Toyota Park 7000 S. Harlem Ave. in Bridgeview.
Once the parade arrives the trucks will be on display and festivities will be ongoing from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Toyota Park. They will include a live band Tow Truck Olympics food prizes and more. Admission is free.
More than 500 trucks are expected which will break the current Guinness world record for largest tow truck parade.
Tow Trucks for Tots is a nonprofit that collects toys for children at Christmastime. It is made up of mostly family owned towing companies.
Read original:http://www.theherald-news.com/2016/11/12/tow-truck-parade-to-depart-sunday-morning-from-joliet/ahrp7cl/
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A male driver reverses his Vauxhall Astra from a tow truck Waltham Forest Council/YouTube
A man who angrily reversed a car off a tow truck astonishingly without writing the thing off has been criticised by a council for his extremely dangerous manoeuvre.
The driver tried to remove the silver Vauxhall Astra from the grip of a parking enforcement firm by starting the engine of the car and simply reversing it off the back of the truck as it hadnt yet been secured.
See the video below
In the footage he can be seen storming up to the vehicle which had been parked illegally on a street in Waltham Forest east London before driving it off in an effort that appears to have succeeded as the car simply bounces back into action.
Waltham Forest Councillor Clyde Loakes said: The man had an utter disregard for anyone on the street and what he did was extremely dangerous.
You can see kids and other members of the public milling around in the foreground of the video and thank goodness none of them were in the immediate vicinity or he could have killed someone.
The incident happened at roughly 8am on 29 August on Hazelwood Road in Walthamstow and was captured on film by parking enforcement officers.
Read more:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/driver-avoids-impounding-by-reversing-car-from-parking-enforcement-tow-truck-9737325.html
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WLOS GREENVILLE S.C. -- A tow truck driver refused to a help a customer stranded on Interstate 26 in Asheville on Monday.
"Something came over me I think the Lord came to me and he just said get in the truck and leave" said Ken Shupe of Shupee Max Towing in Traveler's Rest S.C.. "And when I got in my truck you know I was so proud because I felt like I finally drew a line in the sand and stood up for what I believed."
Motorist Cassy McWade says she was in a car accident and the family called their regular mechanic to drive about 45 minutes north in order to tow her home to Traveler's Rest from the side of the Interstate. He wasn't able to make the trip so McWade says he called Shupe.
He arrived after about an hour and began the process of towing the vehicle.
"He goes around back and comes back and says 'I can't tow you.' My first instinct was there must be something wrong with the car" McWade told News 13 on Wednesday. "And he says 'No you're a Bernie supporter.' And I was like wait really? And he says 'Yes ma'am' and just walks away."
McWade has a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker on her rear fender and a yard sign in her rear window for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Shupe who supports presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said his decision on the side of the interstate this week was more about business than politics.
He believes Bernie Sanders supporters are socialists and says he's had problems with two customers over the last six months who supported Bernie Sanders. He said they caused him problems over paying their bills.
"I've had some horrible experiences in the last six months with towing cars for this mindset individuals in that I don't get paid. They want to argue about a $50 tow bill and it turns into just a drama and a fuss. And I said you know I'm not going to associate with them and I'm not going to do any business with them" Shupe said.
"I'm really not interested in doing business with that clientele" he said of Sanders supporters.
"I personally don't believe that you don't have to agree on anything just to be kind to one another" McWade said. "I was like what did I do to you? You know I do believe I try to do right by people. So I was offended and I don't know what exactly he thinks I would have done to him directly by being a believer in Bernie."
McWade 25 has psoriatic arthritis fibromyalgia Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and early-stage Crohns which she said made sitting on the side of the road without a restroom nearby"terrifying". She is legally disabled and says the handicapped placard was hanging on her mirror when Shupe arrived.
She also says the family mechanic informed Shupe that she was disabled.
After waiting more than an hour and a half McWade was towed by another company.
Shupe says he did not know that McWade was disabled.
"Had she been disabled would I have towed her car? No ma'am. I would have pulled forward and sat there with her to make sure she was OK until another wrecker service showed up to get her home safely but I still would not have towed her car" said Shupe. "I stand by my decision and I would do it again today if the opportunity presented itself."
Read more:http://wlos.com/news/local/tow-truck-driver-refuses-to-tow-motorist-over-bernie-bumper-sticker
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The Arlington County Board on Saturday spent an hour and a half discussing changes to the county’s towing ordinance.

The Board voted to advertise a series of changes — final approval is set for next month — but not before making some alterations to the County Manager’s recommendations.

The alterations were essentially intended to prevent towing malfeasance. Among them:

The Board inserted a provision that requires towing companies to receive authorization from the property owner to tow a vehicle, which would apply only to non-residential properties during business hours.

The Board kept the current requirement that tow truck drivers photograph the condition of a vehicle before towing it, and added a requirement that tow companies notify those who have been towed that they may view the photos upon request.

While the County Manager recommended language stipulating that tow companies must notify police of a tow within 10 minutes, rather than “immediately,” as currently worded, the Board gave itself the option of requiring police notification prior to a tow.

The Arlington Chamber of Commerce objected to the authorization requirement — also referred to as a “second signature” — on the grounds that it could cost businesses more time and money to remove trespassers who park on their lots.

The Chamber sent a letter to the Board expressing its “vehement opposition” to the requirement. Chamber President and CEO Kate Bates also spoke at the meeting.

“Nobody likes it when their car is towed but that is not justification for putting significant burden on property owners,” said Bates.

County Board Vice Chair Jay Fisette proposed the addition of the second signature requirement. It passed, but with at least two County Board members saying they were unlikely to support it when a final vote is taken next month.

Fisette said that the low number of formal complaints against towing companies — there were 87 towing complaints and seven violations recorded by the county in 2015 — does not reflect the reality of widespread disdain for so-called “predatory towing” practices in Arlington.

As evidence, Fisette cited an ARLnow.com poll from last year in which 84 percent of respondents — nearly 2,300 people — said towing companies in Arlington were more predatory in their conduct than “just doing their job” for local businesses.

“It’s actually refreshing to have the Vice Chair cite an ARLnow poll,” said Board member John Vihstadt, to laughter in the County Board room.

Fisette also cited an ARLnow.com opinion column that recounted someone being towed from the former Taco Bell lot on Wilson Blvd in 2000 while eating at the restaurant — because a spotter saw him walk next door to get cash from an ATM.

A resident who spoke at the Board meeting agreed with Fisette’s assessment of towing practices.

“Many mom and pop restaurants are being harmed by aggressive and predatory towing… it’s driving business away,” said Sarah McKinley, a towing critic and the vice president of the Columbia Heights Civic Association. “A second signature creates a balance and gives retail owners some control over this situation so they aren’t so damaged.”

The Chamber, however, said towing companies provide a valuable service to local businesses. The Chamber supported the County Manager’s original proposal, which it described as a “compromise.”

“We… emphasize our vehement opposition to the addition of a second signature requirement for the removal of illegally parked vehicles or the prohibition of parking ‘spotters’ to monitor parking areas,” the Chamber wrote in its letter to the Board.

“The addition of either would present significant administrative and cost burdens to implement and would deteriorate the level of service provided by towing contractors to local businesses who must keep parking areas clear and available to their employees, visitors and customers to remain financially viable,” the letter said. “We appreciate the steps the County has been working towards to make Arlington a more business friendly community, and urge extreme caution to the Board in exploring proposals that would shift things in the opposite direction.”

PAWTUCKET The John Martins Foundation proudly presents the First Annual John Martins Classic Cars and Tow Truck Show on Saturday Aug. 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the grounds of McCoy Stadium. The rain date is Sunday Aug. 14.
The family-friendly event is free and open to the public.
It will feature a combination of classic cars and tow trucks for all car enthusiasts or anyone who would like to simply enjoy a day of remembrance with family and friends in honor of John Martins.
Other activities include food trucks music face painting balloon artists fingerprinting Best of Show awards prize giveaways and raffles with a special appearance by former NFL Indianapolis Colts player Jamie Silva signing autographs.
All proceeds and donations to benefit the John Martins Foundation to help support burn victims.
The John Martins Burn Foundation is a nonprofit founded in memory of Rhode Island businessman John Martins a kind generous and charitable man admired by many because of his ethics states a release. Martins believed that with hard work and determination dreams can become a reality.
On Sept. 4 2015 Martins was driving a tow truck back from a job when he lost control of his vehicle which plunged down an embankment and burst into flames. Doctors did not expect he would survive his extensive injuries more than 72 hours but Martins fought valiantly for his life for the next 23 days before succumbing to his injuries.
His grief-stricken family created the nonprofit organization in his honor to benefit other burn victims.
Read more:http://www.valleybreeze.com/2016-07-05/pawtucket/john-martins-classic-cars-and-tow-truck-show-coming-aug-13#.WEW0GbKLS00
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Dramatic footage shows how an Audi and a tow truck became engulfed in flames after catching fire on the M62 near Saddleworth.
Smoke can be seen billowing across the westbound carriageway of the motorway while both the white van and its load burn away.
Two lanes were shut at J22 near Rishworth Moor at around 2pm.
It appears the vehicle had pulled over onto the hard shoulder with the driver even getting out his hazard sign before the fire took hold.
Images taken by GMFRS station manager Jason Rain show the burnt out vehicle still smouldering.
The truck looked completely destroyed as did the front end of the Audi it had been transporting.
The sliproad reopened at around 4pm but lanes one and two were kept closed for around an hour after while the carriageway was treated by gritters and cleaned up.
Highways England @HighwaysNEAST
J22 w/b entry slip now open however 2 lanes remain closed W/B at J22 for carriageway clean up. Long delays back to J23
Highways bosses tweeted to say the motorway was fully reopen by 5pm.
They posted on Twitter: All lanes open and lane closures removed #M62 W/B just after entry slip at J22. Long delays remain back to J23 but clearing steadily.
Traffic cameras show congestion is currently backed up to Huddersfield.
Read more:http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/watch-dramatic-video-footage-shows-12031137
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Collin Vandenheuvel and his workmates at Preferred Towing appear in the first episode of Heavy Rescue: 401 airing Oct. 10 on the Discovery Channel. Brett Morris photo www.BrettM.com
Troy Shantz
Preferred Towing is often seen on the road and will soon be seen on screen too.
The Sarnia company is a player in the Discovery Channels Heavy Rescue: 401 a reality TV show that tells the story of tow operators rescues and maintenance crews that keep 400 series highways moving.
The first sneak peek episode airs Monday Oct. 10 at 10 p.m.
For them to come to us and ask us to be a part of this its a pretty amazing feeling said Collin Vandenheuvel a tow operator and son of Preferred owners Gary and Tammy Vandenheuvel.
We feel honoured to do this and it was a fun experience.
Vandenheuvel said Sarnias unpredictable weather which can play havoc on roads was one reason the company was chosen.
With the lake effect it really changes up here really quickly.
In January a crew began filming the Sarnia team seven days a week for nearly three months. Vandenheuvel said having the cameras looking over his shoulder was nerve wracking at first but the results were worth it.
Weve got our parts and from what weve been seeing so far its been amazing. They did a great job putting it all together.
Vandenheuvel said the companys crewmembers appear in five of the eight episodes including the opener Monday on Discovery Channel. The rest of the season is scheduled to run on unspecified dates early in the new year.
Vandenheuvel his dad and four other employees apparently appear in the show. The scenario is not unlike that of the popular Discovery Channel series Highway Thru Hell in which Jamie Davis and his son Jason work together in the business.
Starting with a single one-ton 24 years ago Preferred Towing today has a fleet of 14 trucks.
The largest is powerful enough to clear car wrecks pull ailing tractor-trailers off the road and has been used to haul vessels built in Sarnias world-class fabricating shops.
Vandenheuvel said the tow companies and maintenance crews on the show are from all over Southern Ontario and hed gotten to know some of them through towing operations on 400-series highways.
We know these guys theyre really good guys. And theyre going to look just as good as we do on TV he said with a laugh.
Read more:http://thesarniajournal.ca/city-tow-truck-team-ready-for-its-reality-tv-close-up/
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A tow truck caught fire Saturday night at the Four Corners intersection in downtown Rochester, though no injuries resulted.

According to the Rochester Police Department, the tow truck was traveling east on Main Street with a red four-door sedan hooked up. Apparently, electrical issues sparked a fire at the intersection, where East and West Main streets, State Street and Exchange Boulevard meet.

It was another dangerous few days for tow truck drivers on Twin Cities roadways this Memorial Day weekend.
Tow truck driver Troy Mechura captured video of drivers not moving over despite a Minnesota law that requires drivers to slow down and move over for emergency vehicles.
Tow truck drivers say its nothing new and only getting worse.
Tow truck drivers to motorists: Move over
"I had a semi that literally took my hat right off and sent it down the freeway" Mechura said.
Tow truck drivers say commuters are often distracted or worse yet dont know the law. The space the law seeks to provide can be the difference between life and death and Mechura hopes that through advocacy this growing problem can be fixed.
"My life is worth something everybody's life is worth something you can not put a price tag on it" Mechurasaid.
Read more:http://www.fox9.com/news/150622302-story
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Tanker truck smacks buildings.

No one was hurt Tuesday morning when a disabled 18-wheeler tanker truck slipped off the tow truck pulling it and rolled into two industrial buildings in New Braunfels, a city police spokesman said.

By Dalondo Moultrie

The Herald-Zeitung

No one was hurt Tuesday morning when a disabled 18-wheeler tanker truck slipped off the tow truck pulling it and rolled into two industrial buildings in New Braunfels, a city police spokesman said.

Police don’t expect to file any charges in the accident, said David Ferguson, New Braunfels Police Department communications coordinator.

“The 18-wheeler was unoccupied, and both buildings were unoccupied at the time of the crash, and no injuries were reported,” he said. “However, both buildings suffered heavy damage from the collision.”

He said the crash happened about 5:45 a.m. Tuesday in the 4200 block of Farm-to-Market Road 482, where police and New Braunfels Fire Department personnel were called for reports of a major accident.

Crews arrived and found a large tow truck had been driving south on FM 482 near Solms Road when the truck it was hauling detached from the wrecker, Ferguson said. He said the tanker began rolling free through a grassy area and then it crashed into two “metal, industrial-style buildings.”

He said the runaway tanker truck remained upright and spilled none of its lime powder load.

Authorities closed traffic on FM 482 from the southbound Interstate 35 frontage road to Solms Road. They kept it closed about three hours while investigation and debris clearing commenced.

“The investigation revealed that the wrecker hit a bump in the road, which caused the tanker it was hauling to bounce up,” Ferguson said. “That bounce caused the safety straps to break and dislodged the tanker from the hook that was securing it to the tow truck, allowing the 18-wheeler to roll off the wrecker.”

Fred Heimer said he and his family have owned buildings in the industrial park since the older ones were built in the 1980s. He said the buildings damaged Tuesday were built in 2014 and currently house a beverage company and a martial arts studio.

“The worst part of it is it hit where the electricity goes in. Both buildings are without power,” Heimer said. “It’s going to be a challenge the next couple of months to get it put back together.”

Allen Salmons said he is manager at Ellis Sales Company, a manufacturer of oil drilling parts. The company already was facing challenges Tuesday afternoon, he said.

“We have no electricity, no water, no internet, no nothing right now,” Salmons said.

He predicted it would be a week before things got back to business as usual.

The front of the truck smashed into the buildings, went about cab-deep and left the trailer sticking out of the structures, NBFD Battalion Chief Donny Obuch said. He said emergency crews initially thought a hazardous liquid was leaking from the bottom of the truck, but later learned a water main was broken and water was the liquid they saw under the vehicle.

“The second hazard is it had hit directly on the electrical meter boxes for the entire complex,” Obuch said. “In order for us to pull out the vehicle, we had to get NBU there and wait for NBU to secure the electrical lines prior to us surveying the damage to see if we could remove this vehicle.”

Once the electrical issue was no longer a problem, the tow truck operator pulled the semi-truck from the buildings, he said. Firefighters found no leaking hazardous materials and no injured people, Obuch said.

Things could have been a lot worse.

“For the amount of damage that was done and the potential hazard that existed, it turned out to be a very good call for us,” he said.

The tow truck was invented in Chattanooga, The International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum is here and Ooltewah is home to Miller Industries, the world's largest manufacturer of towing and recovery equipment.

So, yeah, there will be a celebration in Chattanooga on Saturday, Sept. 10, to mark the tow truck's 100th birthday.

Miller Industries will sponsor the festivities, which include a parade of tow trucks rolling through downtown that will stop around 7 p.m. Saturday at Ross's Landing near the Tennessee River riverfront. The public is invited to Ross's Landing for live music, free refreshments, food truck fare, games for kids — and a fireworks display once it gets dark.

Lots of people are expected for the once-in-a-century event.

"Since I've come to work here, I have been amazed at how many people are actually into tow trucks. It is mind-boggling," said Kathy Brown, who worked at a bank downtown before she was hired in mid-August as co-assistant director at the International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum. "I did not realize tow trucks had such a following."

The museum's events will include a ceremony at 10 a.m. on Sept. 10 that's open to the public, to add names to the museum's Wall of the Fallen, a memorial to tow truck operators who've lost their lives on the job. The museum also has a survivor's fund that helps drivers' families, Brown said.

TV shows about the towing and recovery industry are popular, including "Highway Thru Hell," a reality TV show set in Canada, "Wrecked," set in Chicago, and "Ice Road Truckers." Jamie Davis, a real-life tow truck operator who's the star of "Highway Thru Hell," will take part in Saturday's parade.

The 100th birthday celebration coincides with the Tennessee Tow Show, which runs from Thursday to Saturday at the Chattanooga Convention Center.

"There'll probably be over 2,000 people this year, because it's the 100th anniversary," said Jimmy Collins, president of the Tennessee Tow Truck Association and owner of Casper's Bodyshop and Wrecker in Greeneville, Tenn. "For the industry [the anniversary's] a big milestone. For the city of Chattanooga, it's a big milestone."

Ernest Holmes in 1916 built the first tow truck in Chattanooga by attaching a rigging system to a 1913 Cadillac, marking the birth of the towing and recovery industry, according to Miller Industries. Holmes filed for a patent — the first of about a dozen — for his idea in 1917 and subsequently built the Ernest Holmes Co. here to make and market his tow truck.

The Holmes brand lives on as part of Miller Industries' family of tow truck equipment manufacturers that also includes the brands Century, Chevron, Vulcan, Boniface and Jige.

"Miller Industries' roots run deep in Chattanooga, and we are honored to share the centennial celebration of our Holmes brand with our friends and neighbors in the local communities," Miller Industries' President and Co-CEO Will Miller said in a statement.

A tow truck and the boat it was towing is out of the water after getting submerged at Cherry Creek Reservoir Sunday afternoon.
South Metro Fire Rescue crews and a dive team responded to the west boat ramp at the reservoir to pull the truck and boat out.
Crews say the truck was stuck in ground material.
Divers used an airbag to try to lift the truck up so it could be pulled out.
The first attempt to pull the truck out did not work.
First attempt at pulling the truck out was unsuccessful. Taking another airbag under and reattaching a tow cable. pic.twitter.com/lR6FDLqhuO
Crews used a second airbag under the truck and were able to float the truck above the water just enough to pull it out with tow cables.
The truck was successfully pulled from Cherry Creek Reservoir. (Photo: South Metro Fire Rescue)
No one was injured and no rescues had to be made.There is no word yet on what caused the truck to go under water.
Read more:http://www.9news.com/news/local/tow-truck-and-boat-go-under-water-at-cherry-creek-reservoir/303871575
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Many drivers have been tempted to ignore the warning signs about parking restrictions at airport drop-off zones in order to wave their loved ones off.

But a new video has highlighted just how quickly that decision could leave you stranded and out of pocket.

Amazing footage shows a tow truck at what is thought to be a Turkish airport scooping up a car and taking it away in under a minute.

A YouTube video shows a car at departures in a Turkish airport being towed in under a minute

The white vehicle was removed by the tow truck for being unmanned.

Tow truck scoops up cars left at airport drop off point

The video, which has been viewed more than half a million times on YouTube, shows a pick-up truck that reportedly polices the departures zone every five minutes.

As the car is parked without a driver, the truck immediately confiscates the vehicle.

The speed of the manoeuvre is lightning quick. The tow truck parks up next to the car, lowers two metal arms and lifts the car onto its rear - and begins to move off with just under 60 seconds on the clock.

Turkish airport security is especially vigilant at the moment because of a series of terror attacks in the country.

In June, three suicide bombers hit Istanbul's Ataturk airport, which killed 41 people and left 239 people injured.

The speed of the manoeuvre is lightning quick - with the car being removed from the spot in under a minute

Turkish airport security is especially vigilant at the moment because of a series of terror attacks in the country

The extremists sprayed bullets into crowds of terrified passengers and security personnel before blowing themselves up.

Footage showed an explosion at the door to the arrivals hall by a suicide bomber before another two attackers sneaked into the building and detonated their devices.

IRVING PARK — Angel Carbajal was returning to his Irving Park home from Home Depot on Wednesday morning when he saw a man sprinting down the middle of his street, running from the scene of a car wreck. He then saw his neighbors running after the man.

"I said, 'Why is he running?' " Carbajal said. "Then I see the mess."

Around 7 a.m. Wednesday, a driver for Rosehill Towing and Recovery Inc. was going the wrong way down the 3300 block of West Cuyler Avenue when he hit a speed bump, neighbors said. The driver went over the bump "way too fast" and crashed into cars, damaging seven of them, said neighbor Sharon Costanza.

Five of the cars were towed from the scene and were most likely totaled, neighbors said. Two cars that remained on the block Wednesday evening suffered heavy front-end damage, including Carbajal's, he said.

"It was bad," Carbajal said of the damage his car suffered. "We'll see what happens."

The tow truck was also likely totaled and was towed away from the scene, neighbors said.

After the crash, the tow truck driver tried to run away, but neighbors followed him and told police where he was, Costanza said.

The tow truck is owned by Rosehill Towing and Recovery Inc., according to photos taken by neighbors at the scene. Patrick Worley, of Des Plaines, is listed as the president of Rosehill Towing and Recovery Inc. in state records, and he listed himself as a driver and CEO for the company on Facebook. Rosehill Towing and Worley could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

One of the smashed cars that remained on the block suffered heavy front and side damage. [DNAinfo/Joe Ward]

Police could not say if anyone had been charged or cited in the crash, but they did confirm a truck hit a parked car on the block and no injuries were reported.

The neighbor, who asked that his name not be printed, said he heard the tow truck hit the speed bump.

He then hit three cars parked on the north side of the street, bounced off those cars and hit two cars on the opposite side of the street before bouncing off those cars and hitting the man's "newish" Subaru Crosstrek, he said.

"I was right inside the window. My car was in the air," the man said. "I saw him and he started running."

The man said his daughter was getting ready for work at the time of the crash and usually drives his Subaru to her job.

"She could have been in the car," he said. "I've never seen nothing like this happen."

A380 from China Southern Airlines has been driven by the Los Angeles airport for a tow-truck. This report various media.
The incident occurred late Thursday evening (local time) instead. The superjumbo could carry out flights to Guangzhou in China. On board were 447 passengers and 28 crew members. They all could safely leave the plane. The flight was canceled after the crash. Photos on social media shows that the truck cab is appalled by the collision. To our knowledge there were no injuries.
China Southern has five A380s in the fleet. The aircraft fly daily to Los Angeles.
Read original:http://www.upinthesky.nl/2016/11/11/a380-china-southern-botst-op-tow-truck-los-angeles/
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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. Winter has not yet officially begun, but tow truck drivers are staying busy responding to calls about car troubles because of the cold temperatures.

Mechanics tell KSPR that not everyone has jumper cables in their car for a dead battery, but they recommend it.

They also say it's not a bad idea to have a water bottle, and even a general safety kit that has a flashlight and even a blanket in case you get stranded on the side of the road.

Jason Harden is a tow truck driver with Terry's Auto Service and Towing in Springfield.

He said the company responds to several calls for dead batteries every day, and that only increases in the winter time. He’s had dozens of experiences with stranded drivers on the highway.

We caught up with Harden out on one of these types of calls on Sunday. The driver couldn't start his car in a parking lot.

Harden said the weather plays a big factor in battery problems. "It's easier to start a car in the summertime when it's warmer and in the winter time there's a lot more demand for the power of the battery to start a vehicle."

Harden added it's a good idea to take your car in for service to get it winterized. Have the battery and coolant levels checked before the temperatures start to fall even more.

Police say to keep your eye on road conditions as the weather starts to change, make sure your car is equipped in case you get stranded on a rural road, and to always wear your seat belt.

BUY NOW
Lyn Jerde/Daily Register
Jerry Blystone keeps a close eye on the 1-ton safe that Blystone Towing moved Tuesday from the old Masonic Temple at 111 W. Conant St. to the new temple at 205 DeWitt St. That's about two blocks and the safe -- secured by strapping and rubber padding -- dangled from the tow hooks during the move.
It was a scene right out of a Roadrunner cartoon except the dangling 1-ton safe wasnt labeled Acme.
A few days after the members of the Fort Winnebago No. 33 Free and Accepted Masons invited the public to take the fixtures from their soon-to-be-razed temple at 111 W. Conant St. the Masons called on Blystones Towing on Tuesday morning to move an item that the Masons want to keep in their new temple at 205 DeWitt St.
For the two-block move the safe dangled on two hooks with strapping to keep it from swaying and a pair of rubber mud flaps to keep it from denting or scraping the back of the tow truck.
Longtime Mason James Swan Sr. said the safe which has a combination lock was empty for the move as far as he knows. He said he doesnt know how old the safe is but it was used and will be used again to store vital lodge records.
The Masons sold their temple built in 1936 to Columbia County which plans to raze the building and two other neighboring structures to add parking lots for the Columbia County Courthouse 400 DeWitt St.
When the building comes down Swan said the Masons want to keep as many as possible of the concrete Masonic symbols on the buildings façade. And they want the cornerstone on the buildings southeast corner. Something of a historical nature is expected to be inside the cornerstone Swan said but nobody knows what.
First however the Masons had to clear as many fixtures from the building as possible which is why on Saturday the building was opened to the public for the last time. Swan said somebody got at least some of the light fixtures affixed to the high ceiling of the meeting room.
Getting the safe out was a challenging task even though its on wheels.
Jerry Blystone and his crew used heavy-duty strapping criss-crossing the bottom of the safe to create something to which the hooks could be attached.
Instead of taking it down the short flight of exterior stairs the crew hoisted the safe into the air before preparing it for transit.
It arrived safe and sound.
Read more:http://www.wiscnews.com/portagedailyregister/news/local/article_434ab028-4aa9-5416-af71-cfbb6628de3f.html
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BUY NOW
Lyn Jerde/Daily Register
Jerry Blystone keeps a close eye on the 1-ton safe that Blystone Towing moved Tuesday from the old Masonic Temple at 111 W. Conant St. to the new temple at 205 DeWitt St. That's about two blocks and the safe -- secured by strapping and rubber padding -- dangled from the tow hooks during the move.
It was a scene right out of a Roadrunner cartoon except the dangling 1-ton safe wasnt labeled Acme.
A few days after the members of the Fort Winnebago No. 33 Free and Accepted Masons invited the public to take the fixtures from their soon-to-be-razed temple at 111 W. Conant St. the Masons called on Blystones Towing on Tuesday morning to move an item that the Masons want to keep in their new temple at 205 DeWitt St.
For the two-block move the safe dangled on two hooks with strapping to keep it from swaying and a pair of rubber mud flaps to keep it from denting or scraping the back of the tow truck.
Longtime Mason James Swan Sr. said the safe which has a combination lock was empty for the move as far as he knows. He said he doesnt know how old the safe is but it was used and will be used again to store vital lodge records.
The Masons sold their temple built in 1936 to Columbia County which plans to raze the building and two other neighboring structures to add parking lots for the Columbia County Courthouse 400 DeWitt St.
When the building comes down Swan said the Masons want to keep as many as possible of the concrete Masonic symbols on the buildings façade. And they want the cornerstone on the buildings southeast corner. Something of a historical nature is expected to be inside the cornerstone Swan said but nobody knows what.
First however the Masons had to clear as many fixtures from the building as possible which is why on Saturday the building was opened to the public for the last time. Swan said somebody got at least some of the light fixtures affixed to the high ceiling of the meeting room.
Getting the safe out was a challenging task even though its on wheels.
Jerry Blystone and his crew used heavy-duty strapping criss-crossing the bottom of the safe to create something to which the hooks could be attached.
Instead of taking it down the short flight of exterior stairs the crew hoisted the safe into the air before preparing it for transit.
It arrived safe and sound.
Read more:http://www.wiscnews.com/portagedailyregister/news/local/article_434ab028-4aa9-5416-af71-cfbb6628de3f.html
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Tow Truck Pulled From Bottom Of Smith Lake

A large, heavy, six wheel wrecker was pulled from the bottom of Smith Lake Monday morning. The location is just north and west of the Smith Lake Park boat launch approximately 114 yards off shore in the main channel.

The wrecker (which sported still visible American Towing & Recovery signage) was discovered by divers last week. The find was initiated when a boater on Smith Lake had his vessel make hull contact with the wrecker underneath the water line. The Alabama Marine Patrol and AlabamaPower were contacted soon thereafter.

This led to TowBoatUS and Lyle Wrecker Service being called to evaluate the scene.

After a weekend of calculations and advanced planning, the wrecker was cabled up in the lake to a military style, old school wrecker supplied by Lyle. With a slow, careful reeling in of the cable, the wrecker emerged onto the banks of Smith Lake Park approximately 20 minutes later.

As you can see in this video and accompanying interviews with Captain Jackson Dozier(TowBoatUS), Adam Lyle (Lyle Wrecker Service) and Director Doug Davenport (Cullman County Parks & Recreation), the muddy, foul-smelling wrecker was loaded onto a flat-bed trailer and removed from the scene:

We called the telephone number embossed on the wrecker. The number had been disconnected. We assume the towing establishment is no longer in business. A license plate (with a 2009 date) and the VIN number were recovered by divers. Davenport will be turning that information over to investigators with the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office in an attempt to identify the lawful owner of the vehicle.

The vehicle will ultimately be recycled as scrap.

We visually inspected the inside of the cab. No evidence of human skeletal remains appeared present.

The most pressing question at this marine recovery scene was simple: HOW did this vehicle end up at the bottom of Smith Lake? No one has a concrete answer although ample speculative theories abounded. Interestingly, the wrecker was discovered with fully inflated tires, all six of which were firmly planted on the bottom of the lake. The wrecker was right side up, almost like someone, or something had lowered it into the lake.

Smith Lake Park Director Tony Harris summed up the quandary best:

“I didn’t know anything about this situation when I arrive at the Park this morning. I suddenly find out they are dragging the lake and pulling out a big tow truck. I have no idea how that could have gotten there. Other than the big cave-in to the cab’s roof, the wrecker looks perfectly intact. We really don’t have a clue, much less a plausible theory of how it got here.”

For the moment, this mysterious situation is being dubbed ‘The Tow Truck Pulled From The Bottom Of Smith Lake’. This is occurrence is a first for Smith Lake Park.

GREG IN CORK is selling his BMW Z4 on DoneDeal. And it’s a fine looking car:

Source: DoneDeal

But instead of some flowery description about all of the car’s wonderful attributes, he just introduces us to Sabine:

My car, (her name is Sabine, say hello) has a service history which is longer than the findings of the Chilcot inquiry, and is currently wearing new Pirelli Cinturato P7s’.

And he gets straight to the point about why he’s selling it:

I bought her two years ago at the beginning of my quarter-life crisis, but as I approach my 30′s and the status-anxiety has disappeared, I’ve decided that the time has come to say goodbye.

You can feel the tears on the keyboard as he waves goodbye (and embraces his 30s)

Source: DoneDeal

Greg’s giving a good deal before the summer hits:

Whilst Sabine is mechanically perfect, she’s currently undergoing a period of minor electrical strife, so the roof isn’t retracting under power and the airbag light has illuminated. With that in mind I’ve priced her accordingly, allowing you to grab a bargain before the summer and the annual 40% convertible price increase.

And has all sorts of ideas for a swap:

(Open to ‘swapping’ offers for another 08+ ultimate driving machine (BMW), something else from Germany which is rear-wheel drive, something to tow a horsebox, or at the most basic, something more James May as opposed James Bond.)

A tow truck sent to rescue a car teetering on the edge of a cliff accidentally pushed the vehicle off after the driver lost control.
The video of the incident which has been shared online shows the driver of the rescue vehicle reversing down a steep incline towards a black car.
It clearly shows the car balancing on the edge of the cliff as the truck inches slowly towards it.
But moments later it becomes clear that the rescue mission is not going to plan.
The truck loses control and tips the car over the cliff edge
As the truck continues to reverse down the hill the driver loses control causing the vehicle to veer off course.
Despite turning the steering wheel in several directions the truck driver is unable to stop the vehicle as it careers towards the precariously balanced car.
The car falls straight off the ledge and into the sea
Inevitably the truck hits the stranded vehicle moments later causing it to plunge over the edge of the cliff.
It then crashes onto a ledge below before falling straight into the water and disappearing from site.
It is not clear where the footage was filmed but the clip has already been viewed several thousand times in just 16 hours on LiveLeak.com.
Read more:http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/weird-news/tow-truck-brought-save-car-9632873
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An Irish woman has told how rats ATE the engine of her beloved Mercedes.
Dee Clifford 60 from Kildare had to pay over 500 in repairs after rodents destroyed the insides of her car.
After owning plenty of cars in her lifetime Dee bought a 151 Mercedes in June of last year.
She told the Irish Mirror: "I'm 60 years of age so I thought why not just buy a Mercedes."
However in October four months after buying the car Dee encountered a problem when diesel started leaking from the car.
The damage to the engine
She brought it to the garage where it was repaired and the engineers suggested what might be wrong.
She said: "One morning I turned on the engine and someone pointed out to me that the car was leaking diesel.
"I brought it to a garage in Carlow and they told me it looked like rodents had been eating the insides of the car."
Dee had to pay 150 for that incident but then a week later there were more problems with it.
She added: "A week later I turned the car on and diesel started flooding from the engine there was fumes of fuel everywhere. You could see the pipes were all eaten.
"I had to get a tow truck to come and bring it to a garage even the guy who was towing it was afraid to go near it because their was diesel everywhere."
Read more:http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/elderly-womans-mercedes-engine-destroyed-9658370
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A tow truck sent to rescue a car teetering on the edge of a cliff accidentally pushed the vehicle off after the driver lost control.
The video of the incident which has been shared online shows the driver of the rescue vehicle reversing down a steep incline towards a black car.
It clearly shows the car balancing on the edge of the cliff as the truck inches slowly towards it.
But moments later it becomes clear that the rescue mission is not going to plan.
The truck loses control and tips the car over the cliff edge
As the truck continues to reverse down the hill the driver loses control causing the vehicle to veer off course.
Despite turning the steering wheel in several directions the truck driver is unable to stop the vehicle as it careers towards the precariously balanced car.
The car falls straight off the ledge and into the sea
Inevitably the truck hits the stranded vehicle moments later causing it to plunge over the edge of the cliff.
It then crashes onto a ledge below before falling straight into the water and disappearing from site.
It is not clear where the footage was filmed but the clip has already been viewed several thousand times in just 16 hours on LiveLeak.com.
Read more:http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/weird-news/tow-truck-brought-save-car-9632873
The previous post Tow truck brought in to save car teetering on cliff accidentally pushes it over the edge was first published on Apex Towing - Limerick
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GREG IN CORK is selling his BMW Z4 on DoneDeal. And it’s a fine looking car:

Source: DoneDeal

But instead of some flowery description about all of the car’s wonderful attributes, he just introduces us to Sabine:

My car, (her name is Sabine, say hello) has a service history which is longer than the findings of the Chilcot inquiry, and is currently wearing new Pirelli Cinturato P7s’.

And he gets straight to the point about why he’s selling it:

I bought her two years ago at the beginning of my quarter-life crisis, but as I approach my 30′s and the status-anxiety has disappeared, I’ve decided that the time has come to say goodbye.

You can feel the tears on the keyboard as he waves goodbye (and embraces his 30s)

Source: DoneDeal

Greg’s giving a good deal before the summer hits:

Whilst Sabine is mechanically perfect, she’s currently undergoing a period of minor electrical strife, so the roof isn’t retracting under power and the airbag light has illuminated. With that in mind I’ve priced her accordingly, allowing you to grab a bargain before the summer and the annual 40% convertible price increase.

And has all sorts of ideas for a swap:

(Open to ‘swapping’ offers for another 08+ ultimate driving machine (BMW), something else from Germany which is rear-wheel drive, something to tow a horsebox, or at the most basic, something more James May as opposed James Bond.)

An Irish woman has told how rats ATE the engine of her beloved Mercedes.
Dee Clifford 60 from Kildare had to pay over 500 in repairs after rodents destroyed the insides of her car.
After owning plenty of cars in her lifetime Dee bought a 151 Mercedes in June of last year.
She told the Irish Mirror: "I'm 60 years of age so I thought why not just buy a Mercedes."
However in October four months after buying the car Dee encountered a problem when diesel started leaking from the car.
The damage to the engine
She brought it to the garage where it was repaired and the engineers suggested what might be wrong.
She said: "One morning I turned on the engine and someone pointed out to me that the car was leaking diesel.
"I brought it to a garage in Carlow and they told me it looked like rodents had been eating the insides of the car."
Dee had to pay 150 for that incident but then a week later there were more problems with it.
She added: "A week later I turned the car on and diesel started flooding from the engine there was fumes of fuel everywhere. You could see the pipes were all eaten.
"I had to get a tow truck to come and bring it to a garage even the guy who was towing it was afraid to go near it because their was diesel everywhere."
Read more:http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/elderly-womans-mercedes-engine-destroyed-9658370
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Director of Marsden Recovery Specialists said business damaged by loss of specialist vehicle
A car recovery business has said an arson attack could hurt its trade for up to six months after one of their specialist vehicles was set alight in a random attack.
The recovery truck was parked outside a staff members house on the North Circular Road in Lisburn on Wednesday night.
Just after 2am on Thursday he heard the window being smashed and within a few moments the vehicle was up in flames and has been completely destroyed.
Police believe the fire may have been started deliberately but director at the Lurgan-based firm Kieran Marsden said they are struggling to understand why they were targeted.
He said: It seems to be a random act of vandalism at least we hope so. It was frightening for him.
The vehicle is worth over 100000 and is one of only two of these specialist trucks with a crane owned by the company.
Marsden's believe it will be up to six months before they get another one and are concerned about the effect it will have on their business.
These trucks arent readily available so its going to hurt our business. We really need to have two on the road so it will cause problems. Were a local business and we just help with breakdowns so we just dont understand why.
The truck was parked on a quiet residential street with family houses and a retirement home just metres away.
Mr Marsden added: There are a lot of overhanging trees around there and the fire could have spread quickly. Theres a retirement home just across the road and Im sure it caused them a lot of distress as well in the early hours of the morning.
Wed appeal for anyone who knows anything to come forward and speak to the police.
Northern Ireland Fire amp; Rescue Service spokesperson said: Northern Ireland Fire amp; Rescue Service (NIFRS) received a call at 2:07am to a report of a lorry on fire at the North Circular Road area of Lisburn in the early hours of Thursday 9th June.
Two Fire Appliances from Lisburn Fire Station were deployed to the scene following the report of the fire. Firefighters using a hosereel jet and a CAF jet dealt with the incident.
Northern Ireland Fire amp; Rescue Service finished at the scene at 2:55am and the fire is being treated as deliberate.
Read more:http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/recovery-truck-destroyed-in-overnight-arson-attack-in-lisburn-34786086.html
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The service will run from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday and is available to anyone.
AAA is offering free "Tipsy Tow" services to celebrants this Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. The service will run from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday and is available to anyone not just AAA members.
"If your plans involve alcohol plan ahead for a safe ride home" AAA Northern California spokesman Mike Blasky said in a statement. "If those plans fall through please don't get behind the wheel. Call AAA and we'll get you home safely."
Drivers passengers party hosts bartenders and restaurant managers can call (800) AAA-HELP (222-4357) and provide the driver's name home address phone number and their pick-up location. AAA will send out a tow truck and give the driver the driver's vehicle and one passenger a free 10-mile tow and ride home. For distances beyond 10 miles a standard towing rate will apply.
Read more:https://patch.com/california/dublin/free-tows-tipsy-drivers-memorial-day-aaa
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Black ice blanketed parts of the capital region Monday causing dangerous driving conditions and a number of accidents.

“Mostly slide offs, crashing into each other. Stuff like that. Due to the ice, said Tom Brennan, President of T & T Towing in Cohoes.

At least three accidents happened in Latham along or near Alternate route 7 and Route 9.

A seven-car crash also shut down the Crescent Bridge in Half moon.

The Crescent Bridge in Halfmoon was closed for a time Monday afternoon, after seven cars crashed on icy Route 9.

Witnesses reported seeing cars sliding on the road in Amsterdam because they were unable to steer their vehicles properly due to the ice.

“They're getting a little dicey around here,” said Saratoga resident Mike Ondreyko. “Right when I got off 787 I started to notice some slippery spots,” he said.

In Galway a tractor trailer veered off of Route 29.

The icy weather kept tow truck drivers at T & T Towing and elsewhere busy Brennan said is common in this type of weather.

“Ice is Ice,” Brennan said. “Four-wheel drive is great in the mud and the snow but when you have ice you get going. You got to stop,” he said.

“There's always the impatient ones that want to,” said Neil Chippendale, who was driving through Clifton Park Monday night. “So they try to pass on the inside and they're trying to cut in, which makes it even more dangerous,” he said.

“Brennan said he also warns drivers to slow down when they see tow truck drivers on the side of the road because they take a risk every time they respond to a call, especially with icy weather conditions.

According U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, tow truck drivers die in the line of duty as much as law enforcement officers responding to roadway incidents and more than fire or e-m-s workers.

Brennan, who is also the Empire State Towing and Recovery Association President, said while speed can play a part in many of the accidents seen in inclement weather, it isn’t always the cause.

“When it's icy like this a lot of the accidents are slower moving accidents,” Brennan said. “They just have no control. They can't steer they can't stop,” he said.

He encourages drivers to stay home if they can.

“You need to wait it out,” he said. “Let the DOT workers get out there and get the rock salt and the sand,” Brennan said.

New York State Department of Transportation officials warn travelers to always be aware of black ice in the winter months that forms on roads, particularly in the early morning hours even when the sun is out.

Black ice blanketed parts of the capital region Monday causing dangerous driving conditions and a number of accidents.

“Mostly slide offs, crashing into each other. Stuff like that. Due to the ice, said Tom Brennan, President of T & T Towing in Cohoes.

At least three accidents happened in Latham along or near Alternate route 7 and Route 9.

A seven-car crash also shut down the Crescent Bridge in Half moon.

The Crescent Bridge in Halfmoon was closed for a time Monday afternoon, after seven cars crashed on icy Route 9.

Witnesses reported seeing cars sliding on the road in Amsterdam because they were unable to steer their vehicles properly due to the ice.

“They're getting a little dicey around here,” said Saratoga resident Mike Ondreyko. “Right when I got off 787 I started to notice some slippery spots,” he said.

In Galway a tractor trailer veered off of Route 29.

The icy weather kept tow truck drivers at T & T Towing and elsewhere busy Brennan said is common in this type of weather.

“Ice is Ice,” Brennan said. “Four-wheel drive is great in the mud and the snow but when you have ice you get going. You got to stop,” he said.

“There's always the impatient ones that want to,” said Neil Chippendale, who was driving through Clifton Park Monday night. “So they try to pass on the inside and they're trying to cut in, which makes it even more dangerous,” he said.

“Brennan said he also warns drivers to slow down when they see tow truck drivers on the side of the road because they take a risk every time they respond to a call, especially with icy weather conditions.

According U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, tow truck drivers die in the line of duty as much as law enforcement officers responding to roadway incidents and more than fire or e-m-s workers.

Brennan, who is also the Empire State Towing and Recovery Association President, said while speed can play a part in many of the accidents seen in inclement weather, it isn’t always the cause.

“When it's icy like this a lot of the accidents are slower moving accidents,” Brennan said. “They just have no control. They can't steer they can't stop,” he said.

He encourages drivers to stay home if they can.

“You need to wait it out,” he said. “Let the DOT workers get out there and get the rock salt and the sand,” Brennan said.

New York State Department of Transportation officials warn travelers to always be aware of black ice in the winter months that forms on roads, particularly in the early morning hours even when the sun is out.

The service will run from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday and is available to anyone.
AAA is offering free "Tipsy Tow" services to celebrants this Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. The service will run from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday and is available to anyone not just AAA members.
"If your plans involve alcohol plan ahead for a safe ride home" AAA Northern California spokesman Mike Blasky said in a statement. "If those plans fall through please don't get behind the wheel. Call AAA and we'll get you home safely."
Drivers passengers party hosts bartenders and restaurant managers can call (800) AAA-HELP (222-4357) and provide the driver's name home address phone number and their pick-up location. AAA will send out a tow truck and give the driver the driver's vehicle and one passenger a free 10-mile tow and ride home. For distances beyond 10 miles a standard towing rate will apply.
Read more:https://patch.com/california/dublin/free-tows-tipsy-drivers-memorial-day-aaa
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Director of Marsden Recovery Specialists said business damaged by loss of specialist vehicle
A car recovery business has said an arson attack could hurt its trade for up to six months after one of their specialist vehicles was set alight in a random attack.
The recovery truck was parked outside a staff members house on the North Circular Road in Lisburn on Wednesday night.
Just after 2am on Thursday he heard the window being smashed and within a few moments the vehicle was up in flames and has been completely destroyed.
Police believe the fire may have been started deliberately but director at the Lurgan-based firm Kieran Marsden said they are struggling to understand why they were targeted.
He said: It seems to be a random act of vandalism at least we hope so. It was frightening for him.
The vehicle is worth over 100000 and is one of only two of these specialist trucks with a crane owned by the company.
Marsden's believe it will be up to six months before they get another one and are concerned about the effect it will have on their business.
These trucks arent readily available so its going to hurt our business. We really need to have two on the road so it will cause problems. Were a local business and we just help with breakdowns so we just dont understand why.
The truck was parked on a quiet residential street with family houses and a retirement home just metres away.
Mr Marsden added: There are a lot of overhanging trees around there and the fire could have spread quickly. Theres a retirement home just across the road and Im sure it caused them a lot of distress as well in the early hours of the morning.
Wed appeal for anyone who knows anything to come forward and speak to the police.
Northern Ireland Fire amp; Rescue Service spokesperson said: Northern Ireland Fire amp; Rescue Service (NIFRS) received a call at 2:07am to a report of a lorry on fire at the North Circular Road area of Lisburn in the early hours of Thursday 9th June.
Two Fire Appliances from Lisburn Fire Station were deployed to the scene following the report of the fire. Firefighters using a hosereel jet and a CAF jet dealt with the incident.
Northern Ireland Fire amp; Rescue Service finished at the scene at 2:55am and the fire is being treated as deliberate.
Read more:http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/recovery-truck-destroyed-in-overnight-arson-attack-in-lisburn-34786086.html
Recovery truck destroyed in overnight arson attack in Lisburn See more on: Apex Towing
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Passengers had a lucky escape after a bus they had been traveling on started to sink in to the ground outside a railway station.
All of those onboard had disembarked at Redhill when the sinkhole started to open up under the Southdown PSV vehicle on Monday afternoon (May 29).
The tarmac collapse occurred in the bus and taxi area of the station at around 5.30pm.
A vehicle recovery firm were called by Southdown to get the bus out of the hole.
Steve Walllis managing director of Southdown said: "I can confirm that a double deck vehicle operated by Southdown was unable to move after a small sink hole developed whilst waiting at Redhill Station on Rail replacement duties.
"No passengers were on board at the time"
A3 northbound crash
Woking traffic chaos
M25 Leatherhead crash
Woodbridge Road incident
No passengers were on board at the time (Photo: Clark Motor Engineering Ltd)
Darren Clark owner of Clark Motor Engineering which attended the incident said: "We got called from Southdown PSV saying a hole has developed and the bus is rapidly sinking.
"It was a big hole - very deep as well about five or six foot deep."
The vehicle recovery team managed to remove the vehicle from the hole.
The bus was rescued by a vehicle recovery firm (Photo: Clark Motor Engineering Ltd)
Mr Clark: "We've got these specialist high pressure air cushions that we put underneath the vehicle and lift it. Then we just pulled it out with the tow truck."
"There were a few scratches caused on the side [of the bus] but all was good.
"The bus was in the hole and people were still trying to get on it" he laughed
Mr Clark said it is not often he and his team have to "rescue" buses.
"We've done a few [buses] before but it's very rare" he explained.
National Rail have been contacted for a comment.
Read more:http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/sinking-feeling-bus-after-hole-13114907
The post Sinking feeling for bus after hole opens up in ground outside railway station is courtesy of Apex Towing
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Passengers had a lucky escape after a bus they had been traveling on started to sink in to the ground outside a railway station.
All of those onboard had disembarked at Redhill when the sinkhole started to open up under the Southdown PSV vehicle on Monday afternoon (May 29).
The tarmac collapse occurred in the bus and taxi area of the station at around 5.30pm.
A vehicle recovery firm were called by Southdown to get the bus out of the hole.
Steve Walllis managing director of Southdown said: "I can confirm that a double deck vehicle operated by Southdown was unable to move after a small sink hole developed whilst waiting at Redhill Station on Rail replacement duties.
"No passengers were on board at the time"
A3 northbound crash
Woking traffic chaos
M25 Leatherhead crash
Woodbridge Road incident
No passengers were on board at the time (Photo: Clark Motor Engineering Ltd)
Darren Clark owner of Clark Motor Engineering which attended the incident said: "We got called from Southdown PSV saying a hole has developed and the bus is rapidly sinking.
"It was a big hole - very deep as well about five or six foot deep."
The vehicle recovery team managed to remove the vehicle from the hole.
The bus was rescued by a vehicle recovery firm (Photo: Clark Motor Engineering Ltd)
Mr Clark: "We've got these specialist high pressure air cushions that we put underneath the vehicle and lift it. Then we just pulled it out with the tow truck."
"There were a few scratches caused on the side [of the bus] but all was good.
"The bus was in the hole and people were still trying to get on it" he laughed
Mr Clark said it is not often he and his team have to "rescue" buses.
"We've done a few [buses] before but it's very rare" he explained.
National Rail have been contacted for a comment.
Read more:http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/sinking-feeling-bus-after-hole-13114907
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Your first day at your new job can be the worst. You don’t know the office politics. You can’t remember how to get to the restrooms. You don’t know the company’s policy on stealing other people’s lunch from the office fridge. But you’re probably not going to do too much damage to your career, because everybody who knows that you’re a newbie probably will cut you a break if you make a mistake.

Unless you’re a tow truck driver, that is. Because if it’s your first day on the job towing cars, there’s plenty of damage you can do if you screw up. In fact, you can make things much, much worse.

Now, we don’t know for sure if the video below was actually the driver’s first day on the job. That’s just what this video is titled and what we’d like to believe to make the first two paragraphs of this story make sense. But you’d like to think a veteran tow truck driver would have made sure this didn’t happen.

Full props to everybody seen in the video who acted like the truck making an escape like Andy Dufresne from Shawshank was completely normal. If that’s the case, maybe it’s not the tow truck driver’s first day. Maybe he just works for the same company who managed this.

Your first day at your new job can be the worst. You don’t know the office politics. You can’t remember how to get to the restrooms. You don’t know the company’s policy on stealing other people’s lunch from the office fridge. But you’re probably not going to do too much damage to your career, because everybody who knows that you’re a newbie probably will cut you a break if you make a mistake.

Unless you’re a tow truck driver, that is. Because if it’s your first day on the job towing cars, there’s plenty of damage you can do if you screw up. In fact, you can make things much, much worse.

Now, we don’t know for sure if the video below was actually the driver’s first day on the job. That’s just what this video is titled and what we’d like to believe to make the first two paragraphs of this story make sense. But you’d like to think a veteran tow truck driver would have made sure this didn’t happen.

Full props to everybody seen in the video who acted like the truck making an escape like Andy Dufresne from Shawshank was completely normal. If that’s the case, maybe it’s not the tow truck driver’s first day. Maybe he just works for the same company who managed this.

AN INQUIRY into predatory behaviour by tow truck cowboys who turned private parking lots into cash cows will follow the money trail to see who profited from their operation.
The State Government has confirmed the three-month independent probe led by retired judge Michael Forde will explore the commercial arrangements for private property towing ... and the possible influence arrangements may have in encouraging predatory practices.
The Central Brunswick property at 421 Brunswick St in Fortitude Valley where the property owner was allegedly paid $50 for every car towed from the site.
It comes as a former landlord of an inner-city retail complex revealed an arrangement in which controversial tow company Elite Security amp; Parking Enforcement paid the property owner $50 for each car towed from the site.
The Sunday Mail this month revealed the car park for the Central Brunswick convenience centre at 421 Brunswick St Fortitude Valley used covert spotters who would tip off an awaiting tow-truck driver in as little as 10 minutes should a motorist park there and leave.
Some of those towed had parked then crossed the road to an identically named retail and dining complex. They were forced to pay up to $1000 to get their cars back.
Property manager Andrew Deane said Elite owned by Christopher Kevin Addley 38 was contracted during 2016 to provide security and parking services.
The complex had problems with unauthorised parking and security issues including vandalism.
Mr Deane a shareholder in the company that owned the property until it was sold in August said he set down rules on who could be towed and set a $450 cap on fees.
Read more:http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/inquiry-into-dodgy-tow-truck-businesses-will-follow-money-trail-to-identify-profiteers/news-story/0c527d1b580c60f53aece463d4c68307
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We’ve all been there: You leave your car parked along a Miami Beach street where you swear no one has been ticketed, and suddenly, one hour turns into four, and you discover your car has been towed by some company based in Hialeah. You want to scream or punch a wall. Instead, you can relieve your frustrations by whipping out some colored pencils and filling in an outline of a car being towed in Jacober Creative’s Miami Beach coloring book, High Tides: Tales of Mermaids, Mayhem & Miami Beach.

The idea for a Miami Beach adult coloring book came from the creative minds over at Jacober Creative, a Miami Beach-based branding studio, exactly one year ago. When a team member proposed the idea to Jacober Creative’s founder and CEO, Paul Jacober, he immediately loved the idea, but only on one condition: it would have to be unique, unlike the hundreds of adult coloring books being sold on the market at the time. In order to achieve this specific look, Jacober brought on board Nicolette Connell, a long-time designer for Jacober Creative, to help illustrate the coloring book.

“We didn’t want to do it like how all these other ones are done,” Jacober explains. “We wanted there to be a narrative. So we created this character of a mermaid and her adventures through South Beach. A lot of these coloring books have a lot of abstract imagery throughout, so we wanted to deviate from that.”

Connell, who has been with the company for about seven years, has spearheaded projects for clients such as Jugofresh, and her illustrating talents are displayed in High Tides. Even her more obvious odes to Miami Beach, such as the Lido Bayside Grill at the Standard and a cup of Cuban cafecito, seem beautifully whimsical. Plus, with the added touch of a curvy mermaid protagonist, the essence of Miami Beach is wonderfully captured through the siren's “daily life” from beginning to end.

“The mermaid's experiences are the typical Miami Beach experiences,” Jacober says, “where you might go and have fun at these hotels, go experience the nightlife, and, yes, even get your car towed.”

As residents can tell you, there’s nothing quite like living on the Beach. However, amid rush-hour traffic, rumbustious tourists getting wasted on Ocean Drive, and sea levels rising (which helped inspire the name High Tides), residents could use some well-deserved coloring time to unwind and destress. But this coloring book isn’t just for those who call Miami Beach home. It’s for anyone who has ever visited, and even for those who have never been before.

“We definitely thought it was something that tourists can appreciate,” Jacober says. “But there are a lot of nods that locals might get more quickly. We give shout-outs to iconic locations on the Beach, liket he Delano exterior, the Raleigh Hotel pool, and the Standard hotel, that kind of stuff.”

But for those who remember partying at velvet-roped nightclubs alongside Madonna and Gianni Versace, rather than lounging with Instagram models at more subdued bars, there’s something in this coloring book for you too.

“I’ve lived here since the early '90s, so I sort of saw South Beach in its heyday,” Jacober explains. “This inspired some of the nods in the coloring book to South Beach legends, such as the Scull Sisters, who were staples at every event in the '80s and '90s, to Louis Canales, who was also essential in putting South Beach on the map.”

Although it was challenging to narrow down all of the characteristics that are quintessential to Miami Beach life, there were some illustrations that simply had to be included. “There were certain things that we knew had to be in there," Jacober says. "Like, everyone who has either lived here or visited has had some experience with a tow truck driver. So I knew we had to get it in there.”

AN INQUIRY into predatory behaviour by tow truck cowboys who turned private parking lots into cash cows will follow the money trail to see who profited from their operation.
The State Government has confirmed the three-month independent probe led by retired judge Michael Forde will explore the commercial arrangements for private property towing ... and the possible influence arrangements may have in encouraging predatory practices.
The Central Brunswick property at 421 Brunswick St in Fortitude Valley where the property owner was allegedly paid $50 for every car towed from the site.
It comes as a former landlord of an inner-city retail complex revealed an arrangement in which controversial tow company Elite Security amp; Parking Enforcement paid the property owner $50 for each car towed from the site.
The Sunday Mail this month revealed the car park for the Central Brunswick convenience centre at 421 Brunswick St Fortitude Valley used covert spotters who would tip off an awaiting tow-truck driver in as little as 10 minutes should a motorist park there and leave.
Some of those towed had parked then crossed the road to an identically named retail and dining complex. They were forced to pay up to $1000 to get their cars back.
Property manager Andrew Deane said Elite owned by Christopher Kevin Addley 38 was contracted during 2016 to provide security and parking services.
The complex had problems with unauthorised parking and security issues including vandalism.
Mr Deane a shareholder in the company that owned the property until it was sold in August said he set down rules on who could be towed and set a $450 cap on fees.
Read more:http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/inquiry-into-dodgy-tow-truck-businesses-will-follow-money-trail-to-identify-profiteers/news-story/0c527d1b580c60f53aece463d4c68307
The article Inquiry into dodgy tow truck businesses will follow money trail to identify profiteers See more on: Apex Towing - Limerick
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We’ve all been there: You leave your car parked along a Miami Beach street where you swear no one has been ticketed, and suddenly, one hour turns into four, and you discover your car has been towed by some company based in Hialeah. You want to scream or punch a wall. Instead, you can relieve your frustrations by whipping out some colored pencils and filling in an outline of a car being towed in Jacober Creative’s Miami Beach coloring book, High Tides: Tales of Mermaids, Mayhem & Miami Beach.

The idea for a Miami Beach adult coloring book came from the creative minds over at Jacober Creative, a Miami Beach-based branding studio, exactly one year ago. When a team member proposed the idea to Jacober Creative’s founder and CEO, Paul Jacober, he immediately loved the idea, but only on one condition: it would have to be unique, unlike the hundreds of adult coloring books being sold on the market at the time. In order to achieve this specific look, Jacober brought on board Nicolette Connell, a long-time designer for Jacober Creative, to help illustrate the coloring book.

“We didn’t want to do it like how all these other ones are done,” Jacober explains. “We wanted there to be a narrative. So we created this character of a mermaid and her adventures through South Beach. A lot of these coloring books have a lot of abstract imagery throughout, so we wanted to deviate from that.”

Connell, who has been with the company for about seven years, has spearheaded projects for clients such as Jugofresh, and her illustrating talents are displayed in High Tides. Even her more obvious odes to Miami Beach, such as the Lido Bayside Grill at the Standard and a cup of Cuban cafecito, seem beautifully whimsical. Plus, with the added touch of a curvy mermaid protagonist, the essence of Miami Beach is wonderfully captured through the siren's “daily life” from beginning to end.

“The mermaid's experiences are the typical Miami Beach experiences,” Jacober says, “where you might go and have fun at these hotels, go experience the nightlife, and, yes, even get your car towed.”

As residents can tell you, there’s nothing quite like living on the Beach. However, amid rush-hour traffic, rumbustious tourists getting wasted on Ocean Drive, and sea levels rising (which helped inspire the name High Tides), residents could use some well-deserved coloring time to unwind and destress. But this coloring book isn’t just for those who call Miami Beach home. It’s for anyone who has ever visited, and even for those who have never been before.

“We definitely thought it was something that tourists can appreciate,” Jacober says. “But there are a lot of nods that locals might get more quickly. We give shout-outs to iconic locations on the Beach, liket he Delano exterior, the Raleigh Hotel pool, and the Standard hotel, that kind of stuff.”

But for those who remember partying at velvet-roped nightclubs alongside Madonna and Gianni Versace, rather than lounging with Instagram models at more subdued bars, there’s something in this coloring book for you too.

“I’ve lived here since the early '90s, so I sort of saw South Beach in its heyday,” Jacober explains. “This inspired some of the nods in the coloring book to South Beach legends, such as the Scull Sisters, who were staples at every event in the '80s and '90s, to Louis Canales, who was also essential in putting South Beach on the map.”

Although it was challenging to narrow down all of the characteristics that are quintessential to Miami Beach life, there were some illustrations that simply had to be included. “There were certain things that we knew had to be in there," Jacober says. "Like, everyone who has either lived here or visited has had some experience with a tow truck driver. So I knew we had to get it in there.”

Drivers share a fear of mechanical issues wreaking havoc with our vehicles. Whether you’re on the freeway home after a long day at work, preparing to take the kids to school, or simply letting your car warm up on a crisp winter morning, having engine problems is a pain.

It happened to me recently. Eight endless hours spent at the office in front of my computer, and the half-hour drive back home was doubled because of a simple, unexpected issue.

Knowing the best tow truck company in your area is important.

There’s no need to go into specifics. But without the humor and speedy work of the tow truck driver who came to my rescue, I’d have become a ranting, raving wreck, growling at cars as they sped past.

Finding a reliable, well-performing tow truck firm close to you can seem tricky, but it’s easier than ever today. Why? The internet.

Having other drivers’ knowledge and a world of firms at your fingertips takes time and effort out of the process. So, how do you choose tow truck companies near you?

Check Reviews

Thanks to the global communication offered by the internet, you can find reviews on almost any business under the sun. Whether you’re using a service dedicated to reviews or just chatting with friends via social media, you can find out what fellow drivers thought of local towing firms in a matter of minutes.

Check Yelp, Google Reviews, and any other review website you can find for information on the tow truck businesses in your area. Prepare yourself for the odd poor review, too – even the best companies are prone to negative feedback. Rival businesses sometimes post negative reviews. Consider the majority of reviews, positive or negative, to help make your decision.

Examine The Company’s Credentials

Be sure to study your local towing firms’ credentials, including their licensing and training. Any reliable, reputable towing company will state they carry a license and are bonded. They should also inform if they’re insurance-approved or not.

In some circumstances, this information may not be available on the company’s website. It could be that their site is still under development, or that they’re not as tech-savvy as they perhaps should be. If the firm seems trustworthy in every other way, considering calling the company and ask about their credentials. They’ll should be willing to provide them.

Compare Costs

Depending on a business’s website and character, it may or may not display its prices online. Ideally, the company will present a fixed tariff of charges for different services, though you may have to contact them to get a breakdown of costs.

Be wary of any towing business that’s reluctant to name prices, or implies they’ll basically ‘play it how it lays’ when they arrive on the scene.

However you get this information, try all of the companies in your area, and weigh the prices against each other. Keep companies’ other pros and cons in mind too. Don’t base your decision solely on price.

Drivers share a fear of mechanical issues wreaking havoc with our vehicles. Whether you’re on the freeway home after a long day at work, preparing to take the kids to school, or simply letting your car warm up on a crisp winter morning, having engine problems is a pain.

It happened to me recently. Eight endless hours spent at the office in front of my computer, and the half-hour drive back home was doubled because of a simple, unexpected issue.

Knowing the best tow truck company in your area is important.

There’s no need to go into specifics. But without the humor and speedy work of the tow truck driver who came to my rescue, I’d have become a ranting, raving wreck, growling at cars as they sped past.

Finding a reliable, well-performing tow truck firm close to you can seem tricky, but it’s easier than ever today. Why? The internet.

Having other drivers’ knowledge and a world of firms at your fingertips takes time and effort out of the process. So, how do you choose tow truck companies near you?

Check Reviews

Thanks to the global communication offered by the internet, you can find reviews on almost any business under the sun. Whether you’re using a service dedicated to reviews or just chatting with friends via social media, you can find out what fellow drivers thought of local towing firms in a matter of minutes.

Check Yelp, Google Reviews, and any other review website you can find for information on the tow truck businesses in your area. Prepare yourself for the odd poor review, too – even the best companies are prone to negative feedback. Rival businesses sometimes post negative reviews. Consider the majority of reviews, positive or negative, to help make your decision.

Examine The Company’s Credentials

Be sure to study your local towing firms’ credentials, including their licensing and training. Any reliable, reputable towing company will state they carry a license and are bonded. They should also inform if they’re insurance-approved or not.

In some circumstances, this information may not be available on the company’s website. It could be that their site is still under development, or that they’re not as tech-savvy as they perhaps should be. If the firm seems trustworthy in every other way, considering calling the company and ask about their credentials. They’ll should be willing to provide them.

Compare Costs

Depending on a business’s website and character, it may or may not display its prices online. Ideally, the company will present a fixed tariff of charges for different services, though you may have to contact them to get a breakdown of costs.

Be wary of any towing business that’s reluctant to name prices, or implies they’ll basically ‘play it how it lays’ when they arrive on the scene.

However you get this information, try all of the companies in your area, and weigh the prices against each other. Keep companies’ other pros and cons in mind too. Don’t base your decision solely on price.

Conor Larson was running late Saturday, heading north on I-5 in his tow truck, when a State Trooper flagged him down and asked for his help as an SUV dangled was seen dangling off the side of the freeway in downtown Seattle.

SEATTLE - Conor Larson was running late Saturday, heading north on I-5 in his tow truck, when he came upon a frightening scene in downtown Seattle.

A trooper waved him down and told him an SUV was hanging off the edge of the interstate with the driver inside. They needed Larson’s help.

Larson, a driver for 24 Hour Towing and Recovery, quickly made his way to the scene.

He hooked onto the SUV and secured it as a trooper pulled the driver out of a rear window.

“I really feel like God put me there,” Larson said. “I’m just happy everyone got out alive and I was there to help out.”

Larson met a man shortly after. He believes it was the driver. He said the man shook Larson’s hand and thanked him.

State Patrol said the SUV could have fallen from the interstate had Larson not acted so quickly. They also credit the quick decision of that trooper who waved him down.

That SUV driver went home with no injuries.

Larson finished up his work and made the long drive home to Grandview, where he is based, just happy he was running late at the moment he was needed most.

Conor Larson was running late Saturday, heading north on I-5 in his tow truck, when a State Trooper flagged him down and asked for his help as an SUV dangled was seen dangling off the side of the freeway in downtown Seattle.

SEATTLE - Conor Larson was running late Saturday, heading north on I-5 in his tow truck, when he came upon a frightening scene in downtown Seattle.

A trooper waved him down and told him an SUV was hanging off the edge of the interstate with the driver inside. They needed Larson’s help.

Larson, a driver for 24 Hour Towing and Recovery, quickly made his way to the scene.

He hooked onto the SUV and secured it as a trooper pulled the driver out of a rear window.

“I really feel like God put me there,” Larson said. “I’m just happy everyone got out alive and I was there to help out.”

Larson met a man shortly after. He believes it was the driver. He said the man shook Larson’s hand and thanked him.

State Patrol said the SUV could have fallen from the interstate had Larson not acted so quickly. They also credit the quick decision of that trooper who waved him down.

That SUV driver went home with no injuries.

Larson finished up his work and made the long drive home to Grandview, where he is based, just happy he was running late at the moment he was needed most.

This Dodge Charger Hellcat theft is incredible for a few reasons. According to CBS Detroit, the thieves broke into the showroom of Highland Park, Michigan’s, Snethkamp’s Ram City and stole the muscle car off the floor in about 90 seconds. WWJ News Radio 950's Vickie Thomas shared the security camera footage on Twitter. The thieves push the car out the front door and then shove it down the street using a van (seriously) towards a waiting tow truck. More incredible than the tactics used is the fact that police still haven’t caught the crooks.

The theft happened at 1:00 A.M. and the dealership’s owner, Mark Snethkamp, said the cops arrived shortly after the thieves made their escape. “It looks like they had about a minute and 30 seconds to open the door and push the car out, and then we see another car pushing it away. We’ve got some really good video and I’m shocked that the Highland Park police didn’t catch them because they were here very shortly right after them,” Snethkamp told Thomas. Despite the theft happening so quickly it’s a little hard to believe that cops didn’t catch these guys in the act. There was a freaking tow truck hauling away a bright orange Charger Hellcat for crying out loud! What is more suspicious than that?!

We hate to commend criminals but credit where credit is due: These guys had a plan and executed it flawlessly. Other would-be car thieves who tried to drive stolen vehicles off of showroom floors have not been so lucky or well-prepared. Snethkamp’s Ram City must be pissed, and rightfully so. The good news is it could have been much worse, as in $250,000 worth of wheels and tires stolen overnight worse. When you put it like that losing one $75,000 Hellcat doesn’t seem so bad. Scene photos and screen caps via Vickie Thomas for WWJ.

A tow truck is never a good sign. It tends to be a harbinger of great and terrible darkness, in fact. Either a car has crashed, or a car broke down, or it’s coming to take your precious baby away from a TOTALLY LEGIT parking spot. But occasionally they do the Lord’s work, and in a beautiful way to boot.

The worst thing in automotive existence is people who double-park their cars for extended amounts of time. Not only are you managing to block a road, which is a place where people can drive cars thus denying them the world’s greatest pleasure, but you’re doing it with a car. It’s like some twisted, modern form of cannibalism. A moral tragedy all around, really.

And that’s what makes this tow truck so brilliant. Not only does it remove the offending cars, but it also does it gently and quickly. It doesn’t drag the drive wheels, thus messing up the mechanicals, and it doesn’t take forever, either. It just clears the road for what it was meant for – driving.

Okay, okay, I know it’s at an airport, but still! Roads are meant for driving. Not parking. If we’re going to make this a supreme moral cause we need to make everything about absolutes.

On Thursday, Mirror trailed a towing van for two hours across old city areas, and found it picking up many more vehicles than in the records (PICS: MANOJ BIDKAR, NIKHIL GHORPADE)

Traffic cops would have us believe a truck tows only 20 two-wheelers a day. Mirror tests the claim, only to find that they pick up a lot more, make huge profits, pocketing most of it

In a matter of two hours, a two-wheeler towing van from the traffic police department picked up nearly 30 vehicles crammed into no-parking zones in and around Laxmi Road on a rather lean Thursday, far belying the traffic police’s sorry claim of just 20 in an entire day.

Soon after a Right to Information (RTI) application prodded the traffic department into disclosing its daily towings — the costs involved and the earnings from fines imposed — a Mirror team went on a two-hour drive to check how many vehicles are actually being picked up by a towing van, which works on a contract basis. The survey busted quite a few of the myths the traffic police spun.

For instance, fines were being merrily collected by the contractors operating the vans, who were clearly not part of the traffic divisions and hence not authorised to collect any fine from commuters whatsoever.

“There is a huge nexus between the traffic police and the van operators. The police records show fines collected for only 20 vehicles per van per day. The rest of the amount which the operators amass from commuters does not go into the police revenue kitty, but into their own pockets and those of some traffic police personnel,” disclosed activist Azhar Khan, head of NGO Lokhit Foundation, who had filed the RTI with the Pune traffic police in September, seeking information about how many vehicles are picked up by each van.

In its reply to Khan’s query, the traffic department gave a break-up of the action taken by towing vans, claiming that every van picks up 20 vehicles in the whole day. The van operator gets Rs 50 for every two-wheeler, which adds up to a daily income of Rs 1,000 for each van operator. In the same reply, the traffic police also gave a break-up of the expenses incurred by the van operator, insisting that it was far more than the income. “The traffic police stated that the operators pay salaries to four assistants he employs and, taking into account the van maintenance and diesel expenses, the total expenditure goes up to Rs 2,400. This meant that every van operator was incurring a loss of Rs 1,400 per day. But, it’s difficult to believe that all the van operators are continuing to provide the service, despite incurring losses of Rs 42,000 per month,” Khan contended.

The Mirror team tailed a tempo attached to the Faraskhana traffic division in the afternoon and saw it picking up nearly 30 two-wheelers in the area around Laxmi Road in two hours flat, contradictory to the figures given by the traffic police. When one of the traffic constables was contacted, he let slip the actual figures on the condition of anonymity, saying, “In one round, we pick up six vehicles. And, we take at least six such rounds on a lean day like Thursday. We pick up around 60 vehicles in a day.” This was three times the numbers recorded by the traffic cops.

What’s worse, the employees of the van operator, whose job is only to pick up vehicles and bring them to the traffic division’s office, were seen collecting fines from the commuters. On Mirror’s queries, another traffic constable tried to justify the act. “We are facing a shortage of manpower. So, the pick-up van boys collect the fine money sometimes; but it is only the traffic police which issues the challan,” he maintained.

But Khan clearly spelt out the rules, saying, “Only the traffic police in uniform are allowed to collect the fine. They should also provide and additional receipt of Rs 50 as towing charges. However, most of the time, they do not bother with any such receipt. And that is on the rare instances when they actually collect the fines themselves. It’s mostly the towing van operators who gather the money.”

Deputy commissioner of police (Traffic) Pravin Munde gave Mirror the usual reply when apprised of the situation. “There are clear orders that no other person except police officials should be collecting fines and giving receipts. If persons other than police are collecting fines, I will conduct an inquiry and those found guilty will be punished.”

Till then, between themselves, traffic cops and van operators, have a fair amount of money in tow.

ARLINGTON VA The Arlington County Board is "upgrading and refining" its county code to deal with the "frequently contentious" issue of towing the county said in a statement and one of those changes involves letting more tow trucks into the county that will be prowling area parking lots.
The Board met on Saturday for its November Regular Meeting and will hold a Dec. 10 meeting to discuss "trespass towing" with the public. One of the proposed code changes involves increasing the distance a towing storage lot can be from the county boundary which the Board claims would "allow for additional competition" among towing companies.
The Board made a number of other proposed changes to the county code as well including approval of additional fees that towing operators would be able to charge.
"In the case of the maximum allowable fees for trespass towing the Board is expected to match the State Code in allowing for up to two instances of an additional fee of $25 for a tow that occurs between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. on weekdays or on weekends and holidays" the statementreads. "The County had authorized one flat rate throughout the week. Due to action by the Virginia General Assembly earlier this year Arlington County and other Northern Virginia jurisdictions must allow for these charges."
The Board is also considering a proposal that would require towing operators to provide the county annually with information ranging from storage facilities to state-issued driver authorization documents to proof of insurance coverage.
These recommendations seek to provide protection to vehicle owners while balancing the needs of property owners and their customers Brian Stout a legislative liaison for the County said in the statement.
The Board will consider the following code adjustments:
Requiring more signs inside parking facilities to identify additional parking restrictions should they exist
Increasing from 3 miles to 3.25 miles the distance of towing storage facilities from the County boundary to allow for additional competition among towing companies without adding an unreasonable distance for drivers having to retrieve their cars
Requiring that towing and recovery operators properly secure all loads to meet all safety standards"
Noting in the code that Nothing in this section shall release tow truck drivers from liability for failure to use reasonable care
Removing a provision requiring towing drivers to document the condition of vehicles via photographs or video before theyre towed a change designed to reflect the Countys lack of authority in damage claims
Image via Arlington County
Read more:http://patch.com/virginia/arlington-va/arlington-county-board-wants-allow-more-tow-truck-drivers-patrol-parking-lots
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Tow truck towing a broken down car on the street.
Courtesy of Getty Images
Whether it's a car battery dying skidding into a ditch or crashing a car towing companies offer important services for when a car is in an undrivable situation.
With winter approaching the threat of ice low visibility and low temperatures makes towing services in high demand.
Kyle Dirks manager at Butchs Auto said doing preventative maintenance is crucial in order to avoid having to be towed.
Dirks said making sure you have enough gas in your gas tank treating your gas tank as half is empty in the winter as well as having windows scrapped of ice and snow are preventative measures that can help to avoid needing a tow.
Mark Hansen owner of Mark Hansen's Complete Automotive Repair Service also said to take preventative measures to avoid having to be towed. Hansen said to examine your tires in order to make sure that they are full and in decent condition.
Be proactive and not reactive Hansen said.
By preparing to drive you can prevent having to be towed in the first place.
Although it is good to prepare sometimes being towed is unavoidable. If you find yourself in need of a tow there are things that can be done to help the process go smoothly.
David Williams towing and recovery specialist at Central Iowa Towing and Recovery said that one of the things that people can do to help with the towing process is to know where their car is located.
Without a location a tow truck will take a significantly longer time in order to determine where the tow is needed.
In addition to knowing where your car is located it is important that the towing company gets the keys to the vehicle.
Dirks said that not having keys is a common issue. By not having the keys to the vehicle there is no way to get into the vehicle to put it in drive or to turn the vehicle on to aid in the towing process.
If you are in need of a tow it is also important to be prepared to wait.
Be patient Dirks said. This is something that is easy to forget. There are other people that need to be towed and a tow truck will not instantly show up after a phone number is dialed. Although you may be running late or panicking due to being in a bad situation the tow truck will not arrive any faster.
It is also important to know that tow trucks cannot be on the road at all times.
Williams said that if a tow ban a ban on towing issued if conditions are dangerous to tow in is in effect it could take a significant amount of time before tow trucks are allowed to go onto the interstate.
When the tow truck arrives Williams said it is best if you stay at a safe place to avoid getting injured and to avoid getting in the way of the towing company.
No one plans a breakdown Hansen said.
It is important to remember that towing a car is not planned. By knowing what to do and staying calm towing can be an easy process.
Read more:http://www.iowastatedaily.com/special_sections/article_fbd249fc-a63e-11e6-bac2-5b3851b6b4ce.html
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An employee of Stanford Automotive at 66 Youngs Mill Road claimed his 1995 GMC work truck was stolen from the business between Thursday and early Saturday morning.

The man told LaGrange police officers the truck was last seen on the Madison Avenue side of the shop.

The vehicle also contained more than $8,000 worth of various towing tools and equipment, according to the employee.

The white GMC truck has “Stanford Automotive” stamped on the sides, a white camper shell on the back and strobe lights on top, a report stated.

The vehicle was valued at $3,500.

Convicted felon allegedly threatens to shoot relative

One man remains behind bar accused of threatening to shoot a relative with a gun at a home in the 900 block of Houston Street just before 1 p.m. on Friday.

Dion Fonterrell Jackson, 43, was arrested when LaGrange police officers found a handgun hidden inside a microwave in the house, a report stated.

The gun also was reported stolen more than two years ago, officers said.

The relative told police Jackson threatened to “blow her brains out” if they attempted to leave the home, according to the report.

The relative managed to get away, jump inside a car and drive to a secure location where they called police, a report read.

Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault in Nov. 2004, the report stated. He was sentenced to six years to serve two years behind bars; which Jackson completed.

Jackson was taken into custody on Friday and charged with simple assault under the Family Violence Act, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm during certain crimes and theft by receiving.

DUI

• One woman was arrested after a LaGrange police officer observed her 2005 Lincoln Navigator weaving in and out of lanes on South Davis Road about 5:45 a.m. on Saturday.

The officer stated he also smelled an odor of alcohol when he approached the SUV.

The woman failed a field sobriety test and blew a .227 during the preliminary breath test, a report stated.

She was charged with failure to maintain lane and DUI less safe.

• A driver was taken into custody by LaGrange Police after he crashed into a mailbox and a parked vehicle in the 700 block of Colquitt Street just before 2:30 a.m. on Saturday.

The man failed a field sobriety test and blew a .14 into the officer’s Breathilyzer, according to the report.

The driver was charged with DUI less safe and failure to maintain lane – both misdemeanors.

“Todd brings a lifetime of industry experience as an operator, advocate and financer that further enhances the Tow and Vocational Truck team at Advantage Funding,” said Kristian McCausland, head of sales for Advantage Funding. “Our clients expect to deal with people that understand their business and with Todd we further add to our team of industry experts.”

Prior to his appointment with Advantage Funding, Chase served as business development consultant for Northbrook, IL-based Beacon Funding. Earlier in his career he was the general manager of a family towing business.

Chase serves on the Executive Cabinet of the Towing and Recovery Association of America (TRAA) and sits on the board of the Massachusetts Statewide Towing Academy, where he is a tow-operator trainer. Chase has also served as vice president of the Massachusetts Statewide Towing Association for 16 years.

“I have extensive experience with all aspects of the tow-truck market—operating, selling and financing,” Chase said. “I look forward to expanding Advantage Funding’s market share in this industry and establishing many new relationships.”

Advantage Funding is a ground-transportation finance firm which focuses on companies in the commercial, vocational-truck and dealership spaces.

Nadzri said acting on a tip-off, police deployed traffic personnel to the scene and nabbed the man who was driving an unlicensed tow truck.

"Checks on the suspect revealed that he is not licensed to operate a tow truck, plus the road tax of the truck had expired in 2012.

"The 35-year-old man tested positive for methamphetamine," said Nadzri.

The victims' vehicles were towed from a road near HKL, but not by the authorities.

On top of that, they were issued "compounds" for RM150 or more.

"When the owners refused to pay, the suspect would not release their vehicle," said Nadzri.

Police are investigating if the suspect was operating under the orders of the hospital, the parking management of the hospital, or member of a syndicate.

Nadzri said the suspect was handed over to Dang Wangi police for further investigations.

The case is being investigated under Section 385 of the Penal Code for extortion, Road Transport Act 1987 and the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

He urged motorists who have fallen victim to such cases to lodge a report at the nearest police station to assist investigations.

Meanwhile, Nadzri also urged motorists not to pay parking touts and instead inform the traffic department at 03-20719999 if they are harassed by touts.

"I advise the public not to bother paying the touts, if they pay it is like encouraging them, so park at the proper car parks," he said.

As of Nov 7, police had arrested 181 touts involved in illegal parking activity in the city and some have been charged in court.

"From Monday up until this morning, 28 people including six Indian nationals and an Indonesian have been arrested. Out of the number, 15 have been charged in court," he said.

The immigrants will be investigated further under the Immigration Act on suspicion of misusing work permits.

Nadzri said he does not rule out the possibility that some hotspots were controlled by underworld gangs but to date, no connections were found that linked them to the activity.

"The arrested foreigners claimed they worked individually but it is impossible for them to work individually plus the money collected is not kept by them. We believe someone would make his rounds to collect the money from these touts," he said.

Nadzri said stretches of roads housing entertainment outlets, such as Jalan Alor, Jalan P. Ramlee and Kg Pandan roundabout, are among the hotspots for the parking touts.

Shopping spots such as Jalan Chow Kit, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Kenanga are also hotspots for the touts.

For the last three decades, Murray Kelly has been responsible for tending to about 98 per cent of the towing calls at Kelly Auto Service, and it seems he hears the same story one too many times, “everybody drives too fast.”

Later on in the evening, between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on November 19, Seaforth and the neighbouring regions were given a taste of winter, which is officially not until December 21, as a couple centimetres of snow coated the town - along with temperatures reaching -2 throughout the week.

This is the busiest time of the year for tow truck drivers, especially when having to cart vehicles out of the ditch. Kelly, 51, said the condition of the automobiles tires plays a role in some of the accidents as well poorly maintained vehicles. “The one I pulled out Sunday, a little Toyota with all four tires bald as the cement floor.”

Since the snowfall, Kelly has been dispatched to about 10-15 accidents where the driver has lost control and required assistance.

“It’s more of no common sense, not paying attention and to realize ‘you know it’s actually wintertime,” stated Kelly, November 24. “It’s (nearly) December in Huron County, maybe I should slow down.”

“We are going to have snow, we are going to have ice, we are going to have slop.”

Despite the numerous calls no one was seriously injured, Kelly said the vehicle owners were more shaken up in the whole ordeal. Through for the most part, drivers were stressed from the aftermath, since the damages would not be covered by insurance.

In roughly 72 hours from the first snowfall, Burkholder Auto Body and Towing Ltd. saw virtually double the calls compared to Kelly Auto Service with one of those being an ambulance on Highway 8 between Clinton and Seaforth.

The OPP issued winter tips to the community mid Wednesday afternoon due to the numerous collisions in Huron County relating to “weather and road conditions.” The OPP referred to the wintry weather as “problematic” for drivers in the area. From November 19-21, the authorities revealed there were 12 motor vehicle accidents.

Out of the dozen collisions, nine were as a result of gusting winds and snowy/ice covered thoroughfares, in addition there was a fatality, where weather was not the factor and the other two had to do with deer on the roadway.

There are at least two ways this man could’ve handled the situation, and he chose none of them. Getting your car towed (with or without a good reason) can be very frustrating, but it’s very important not to let your exasperation get the better of you in those moments. It’s always better to remain calm than to hop on the towing truck, start your car, and attempt to jump off the platform because things will most likely go wrong; very wrong.

The gentleman in the video, named Arthur, clearly didn’t want his car taken away, so instead of resolving the “issue” like a responsible, sane adult that is entitled to maneuver 1.5 tons of metal on public streets, he decided to act out (and possibly ruin his car in the process).

At what point the man reckoned it's better to break his car than pay a lousy impound fine is unclear, but what’s worse is that almost every bystander encouraged his behavior. Fortunately, his attempt in getting the car on the asphalt (and inadvertently injuring himself or others) failed thanks to the chains securing the vehicle’s axles.

So, if you’re in danger of getting your car impounded, remember, it’s better to settle the dispute in court instead of becoming famous on the internet

The drivers lined up to greet Governor Cuomo during a CNY visit

State's 'Move Over Law' now applies to sanitation workers

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrived at the New York State Fairgrounds to announce Phase II of renovations, he was greeted by rows of tow trucks lining both sides of State Fair Boulevard.

Operators say the goal was to get help improving compliance with the State's Move Over Law.

Most of the drivers lined up end-to-end could quickly name someone who died on the job.

"The last funeral we had to go to was for James Homkey in Canajoharie two weeks ago. He was the tow truck operator killed on the NYS Thruway," said Tina Lyon, a tow truck operator.

On Friday, a NYS Thruway worker died when he was hit by a vehicle while helping two tow truck operators in Herkimer County.

Among the men and women lining State Fair Boulevard as the Governor arrived were workers from Northern Lights Auto Service in Mattydale, who buried their boss, Todd Young, five years ago this month.

"It devastated his family. Still to this day, there's not a day that goes by that his family isn't affected by it," said Nathaniel Sherman, an employee of Northern Lights.

While New York law does require drivers to move over for tow truck operators - many workers say not enough people are paying attention when they see the flashing lights.

"Nobody takes them seriously really. Nobody is slowing down and moving over for the yellow lights because everybody has them," Lyon said. "So, we are asking the Governor to amend the Move Over Law to allow tow truck operators to have the blue rear-facing lights, so when we do our job. It's a little easier for the public to see."

The law now includes sanitation vehicles in addition to tow trucks and emergency vehicles. Violators could be fined up to $400 and get three points on their license. Sherman says that's not enough.

"It takes a blink of any eye for someone to lose their life....where a ticket - they can pay the fine and go about their day," he adds. "Unless there are some real stiff penalties to the point where it sets into these people, they are not going to listen."

Lyon says she has sent letters to the Governor, but hasn't heard back. She organized the rally quickly after hearing he would be visiting the fairgrounds this week.

Her efforts reach beyond the state lawmakers - she wants every driver to think carefully as they hurry home at the end of the day.

"We're usually competitors. But, for a cause like this we do band together as a whole and try to get the word out there," she said. "Please slow down and move over because we all want to go home too."

BATAVIA — Painted turquoise and purple with silver chains and large stars, Parise’s Auto and Towing’s 2001 Freightliner FL 120 won first place in the working truck category of the national Shine ‘n Star Tow Truck Photo Beauty Contest, hosted by Tow Times magazine and powered by Ford Trucks.

Chosen out of 550 entries submitted over five categories, the truck from the Batavia business was cobbled together out of five different trucks, including a 1981 fire truck headed to the junkyard, and the appearance was altered to look more aerodynamic.

Everything was painted and designed in-house.

The colors painted on the tow truck — turquoise, purple and silver — were the original palette when the business started 60 years ago. Different paint schemes were tried out, and according to Elaina Dickinson, one of the owners of the family-owned business, she and her father Mark Dickinson, another owner, painted as they went along.

“We went with the chains because in towing you use chains in order to tow,” Elaina said. “The truck we think looks like a spaceship, hence the stars on it.”

The design of the truck took about a month in planning, she said, and the creation of the truck itself started in 2010 and ended in 2014, shortly before Elaina entered the contest, desiring to show off the unique truck.

“We thought it was a long shot that we could put our truck in there and maybe have it seen by some people,” she said, admitting that the fact that they won first place came as a shock.

In the beginning of October, Tow Times magazine called to inform Parise’s Auto and Towing they were one of the finalists and a few weeks later, the family-owned business was informed it took first place. In this month’s issue, the 2001 Freightliner FL 120 was shown among the other winners and will have a feature article on it in the magazine sometime in the spring.

“It’s a great honor. It puts Batavia on the map,” Mark said, crediting the design of the truck to his 24-year-old daughter.

The truck is one in a fleet of 16.

Parise’s Auto and Towing started in 1956 with Ralph and Joan Parise, one of the many garages located in Batavia in the 1950s. However, it didn’t buy it’s first tow truck until 1981 when it took on AAA.

“Every year after 1981, we grew. We did AAA all the way up until 2003,” Mark said. “Now it has kind of come full circle back where we are a little mom and pop shop again.”

In a misguided attempt to evade being towed a man tried to drive his car off the back of a parked tow truck.

There's precious little information on this video, but it seems that somewhere in Ireland (probably County Roscommon going by RN code on the number plate) a motorist had his car hoisted on to a flatbed tow truck for some infraction. Not wanting his car towed, because who would, the driver leaped into action and tried to drive his captured car off the back of the truck's deck. It, uh, it didn't go as planned.

Gunning the engine, our intrepid motorist dropped the small silver sedan into reverse and just went for it. Unfortunately, physics (and the fact that the car was still hung up in the hoist slings) intervened and all he managed to do was get the car into a very precarious half-on/half-off position on the deck. He spent a few minutes futilely attempting to get the car unstuck by spinning his tires and swearing, then gave up and dismounted.

Then, in yet another inspired move, the incensed driver tried to start a fight with the tow truck drivers who had been standing by watching the farce with a growing crowd of onlookers. There isn't much resolution to the video, little in the way of closure, but it's probably safe to assume that our plucky hero is on the hook not just for towing fees but also for some substantial repair bills.

Driving off the back of tow trucks is apparently a thing in Ireland and the UK. Back in 2014 a guy in East London tried the same trick and drove his Vauxhall off the back of a tow truck. He was more successful though, and apparently drove away.

So you were involved in a car crash and your car needs to be towed away.

You have rights, so don’t just sign any documents.

According to a statement by the Automobile Association (AA), over the last few months there have been several alarming stories of motorists who have had bad experiences with towing services and tow truck drivers.

In some instances, the drivers’ cars were towed away without their permission and in other unfortunate cases, the tow truck drivers allegedly acted in an unprofessional manner which resulted in the motorists having to pay excessive fees for their cars to be towed.

While these stories might leave some motorists feeling apprehensive, especially when looking at quotations towing services offer, it’s important for drivers to remember that not all tow truck drivers are unscrupulous. There are accredited service providers who adhere to strict rules and ethics.

Tow truck drivers offer a valuable service and if you are in an accident or break down on the side of the road, they are there to help you. However, it is important for motorists to know their rights so they are not pressured into signing an agreement which they are not comfortable with.

Before embarking on any journey, it is always important to be prepared. One of the first questions to ask yourself is: “Will there be towing services near me?”

Next, it is important to know your rights when it comes to dealing with tow truck drivers.

. It is your right to choose a tow truck driver who is a member of the South African Towing and Recovery Association (Satra) or United Towing Association of South Africa (Utasa).

. If you are insured, contact your insurance provider for advice or any other information you may require.

. If your insurance includes cover for towing, call the emergency assistance number.

. Make sure your car is taken to a repair workshop which your insurance has approved.

. Make sure you get all the relevant details from the tow truck driver (his name, the name, contact number and physical address of the company he works for, as well as the tow truck’s registration number).

. Establish exactly how much it will cost to tow your car before agreeing to anything.

The CAA says providing roadside assistance can be very dangerous for tow truck drivers, especially in the winter. (CAA)

Canadian Automobile Association wants the three Maritime provinces to include tow trucks in emergency vehicle right-of-way laws.

'We get a lot of close calls'

Including tow trucks in the legislation means that drivers of other vehicles could be fined for not slowing down, not passing with caution or not pulling over when a tow truck is providing assistance on the side of a road, explained CAA Atlantic spokesman Gary Howard.

"We get a lot of close calls on a daily basis and that becomes even more relevant in the winter when there's less space on the side of the road," he said.

"Working on the side of the road can be very dangerous for any emergency responder. Half of the calls that we're doing are on the side of the road, so we feel it's important for all tow truck drivers to have this included in the legislation."

P.E.I.'s Department of Transportation said it is looking into the request.

Newfoundland already offers this protection to tow truck drivers, Howard said. He added that Ontario has recently included tow truck drivers into its legislation.

Hillsborough’s Public Transportation Commission can help consumers seek full or partial refunds if they have been wrongfully towed.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY – You went shopping only to find your car had been towed while you were away.

What should you do?

If you think you’ve been wrongfully towed in Hillsborough County, the Public Transportation Commission says it can help. The PTC regulates for-hire transportation, which includes towing companies, and often assists drivers in Hillsborough County by investigating tow complaints.

The PTC asks that citizens who feel they were wrongfully towed call the PTC or file a complaint online as soon as possible. The PTC will investigate the situation to ensure that the tow truck driver followed the proper policies and rules and that it was a valid tow.

In fact, in some instances, the PTC has been able to get full or partial refunds for drivers. So far this year, the PTC has helped more than 70 percent of citizens who sought their help with getting a refund.

To avoid getting towed, the PTC offers this advice:

• Don’t park in a business’ lot if you are not patronizing that business. • If you parked in a staffed lot, remember to grab the receipt. • If you parked in a lot with an honor box, make sure you videotape or take a photo of yourself paying, so you have proof. • Don’t block anyone’s driveway or business entrance when parking.

While these tips are helpful in trying to avoid a potential tow situation, the PTC also offers tips to help you if your car has been towed.

If your car has been towed:

• If you suspect that the tow was not lawful, call the PTC to report it before you get your car back. • Take pictures of the area around your car. Take notice of any signs indicating that your car was illegally parked. If signs were not posted at every entrance, it was not a valid tow. All signs should list the tow company with a contact phone number. • Tow truck drivers are required to have proof of the violation. If the driver did not take pictures of your violation, you may be entitled to a partial or full refund. • Be sure to pick up your vehicle between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Otherwise, you will be charged a gate fee of $50 before obtaining your car.

The Hillsborough County Public Transportation is an independent Special District that regulates vehicles for-hire, which includes taxicabs, limousines, vans, basic life support ambulances and wrecker services that support government agencies. The PTC also helps consumers who have complaints with these types of services.

When the calls start coming, it's because a car broke down, popped a tire or ran out of gas.

"They go by their gas gauge when it says they have so many miles left, they don't. They need to get gas before the lights come on," said Ortega.

As for Thanksgiving travelers, once the worst case scenario happens, they never forget.

"When I was little, my mom had a really old car and it broke down. We ended up having to drive back to my grandparents, get it repaired and then drive home," said Kristin Sandstede.

Sandstede and her family are traveling from Omaha to Colorado for Thanksgiving. She said she makes sure her tires have enough tread, the oil is changed, and that her car is even washed before she hits the road.

"I don't know. My parents always said a clean car is always more visible on the road," said Sandstede.

If something bad does happen, Sandstede said she even knows who to call.

"I always have a list of contacts and a plan of who I would call, who's closest, kind of knowing where you're at and how far you are from your destination," said Sandstede.

In case all else fails and there aren't any mechanic shops open, tow truck driver Matthew Ortega said some drivers have even spent the extra money to have their car and them towed to where they need to be on thanksgiving.

"Most people don't have a lot of vacation time and when they finally have vacation and they break down, they want to get where they want to go," said Ortega.

With the winter weather beginning to set in, drivers should also have an emergency pack in their car at all times. Some items that are recommended are jumper cables, a flash light, as well as snacks and water.

Sandstede and her family are traveling from Omaha to Colorado for Thanksgiving. She said she makes sure her tires have enough tread, the oil is changed, and that her car is even washed before she hits the road.

"I don't know. My parents always said a clean car is always more visible on the road," said Sandstede.

If something bad does happen, Sandstede said she even knows who to call.

"I always have a list of contacts and a plan of who I would call, who's closest, kind of knowing where you're at and how far you are from your destination," said Sandstede.

In case all else fails and there aren't any mechanic shops open, tow truck driver Matthew Ortega said some drivers have even spent the extra money to have their car and them towed to where they need to be on thanksgiving.

"Most people don't have a lot of vacation time and when they finally have vacation and they break down, they want to get where they want to go," said Ortega.

With the winter weather beginning to set in, drivers should also have an emergency pack in their car at all times. Some items that are recommended are jumper cables, a flash light, as well as snacks and water.

According to Capt. Mark Pierce of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office in Wichita, Kansas, an initial four-car crash occurred nearby, which resulted in three people being transported to the hospital for minor injuries. As a tow truck was arriving to secure one of the vehicles in that crash, a passing train clipped the bed of the truck, sending a car flying. No injuries were reported from the second crash.

Popular: Skoda Ireland says 22 per cent of its new cars in 2015 were ordered with factory-fitted towing systems
Its common on Irish roads to see a car towing a trailer while clipping along at the 120km/h speed limit despite the fact that the legal speed limit for towing a trailer is just 80km/h.
Speed is just one of the regulations concerning trailer use that are frequently flaunted. The laws and licensing for trailer use are complicated and at times confusing. The reality is that many drivers are towing trailers without the proper licence despite the risk of incurring penalty points and potentially voiding their insurance cover. With trailer use weight is the key.
What can I tow on my car licence? On a standard B car licence you can tow a trailer that has a maximum authorised mass (Mam) of 750kg; this includes the weight of both the trailer and its load. (A trailers technical specifications are stamped on a metal plate attached to it.) You can also tow a trailer and load weighing more than 750kg as long as the combined weight of the vehicle and loaded trailer does not exceed 3500kg. A type 01 unbraked trailer does not need a braking mechanism. This trailer is likely to be small when it is empty you could manhandle it with little effort with usually just one axle.
Can I tow a horsebox on a car licence? According to the Road Safety Authority As a general rule a category B licence does not entitle the holder to tow a horsebox or a livestock trailer because the combined Mam would exceed 3500kg. But this is not always the case. Again as long as the total weight of the car trailer and load carried does not exceed 3500kg you can drive it on a B licence. For example a Skoda Octavia family estate towing a type 02 trailer one with a Mam of more than 750kg with two bulls weighs in at 3085kg combined but the same trailer and livestock towed by a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV weighs in at 4440kg well over the 3500kg B-licence limit.
Drivers of large SUVs on a B licence need to take care as their heavier vehicles can often push the total weight above the 3500kg limit then requiring a category BE (car and trailer) licence.
This seems inherently silly as a large SUV would generally have more power than a car to make towing easier but thats the way the rules apply.
Of course before you attach a hitch to a Ford Ka its worth noting the towing vehicle must be certified to tow the weight of the trailer and load.
What if the vehicle trailer and load together weigh more than 3500kg and I dont have a BE licence? To gain a category BE on your car licence you must have a full B licence. You are required to get a learner permit and take a practical driving test. You must sit a theory test in category BW (if you havent already to get your B licence) to gain a learner permit. You must display an L-plate on the trailer and when practising with it must be accompanied by a driver with a full BE licence. Lessons are not mandatory for a BE test but the RSA recommends them. During the test drivers are given the option of reversing to their left or right around a corner. Can I use any trailer for my BE test? No it must be a permanent boxed trailer such as a horsebox at least as wide and as high as the vehicle towing it and at least 2.4 metres long. The trailer must be presented with 30 four-inch cement blocks as a load.
What does a BE licence allow me to tow? With BE the trailer and load can weigh up to 3500kg and your vehicle can weigh up to the same maximum of 3.5 tonnes bringing the combined weight to 7000kg. A BE-licence holder can tow a car whereas a B-licence holder cannot.
Can I buy a new trailer from anyone? Since late October 2012 the days of buying a trailer built by a local lad who is good with his hands are gone. All new trailers for sale must have European Community whole vehicle type approval. The National Standards Authority of Ireland is responsible for testing and issuing national approvals for trailers made in Ireland. The law is unclear on older trailers and their use but ultimately the driver is responsible for the safety of his or her trailer and load.
An example of the scale of the towing market in Ireland is evident by orders for cars fitted with hitches. Skoda Ireland says that last year 22 per cent of the new cars it sold were ordered with factory-fitted towing systems.
The benefit of a factory-fitted system is that its equipped with compatible electrics connections while the cars stability control and other driving aids automatically adapt to having a trailer attached.
The cars alarm also recognises that a trailer is attached and monitors it; light bulbs in the trailer are monitored too; stop/start is switched off; and the ABS adjusts for the trailer. Factory tow hitches arent cheap but are worth it. Skodas start at 499 and rise to 899.
We were invited to put our towing skills to the test at a novel event. We had a Skoda Octavia Combi (from 32710) to which we hitched a general-purpose twin-axle trailer.
The first challenge was to collect and load a round bale of straw and then drive on a mix of roads. Securing the load in this case with ratchet straps is the responsibility of the driver. It is an offence to have an unsecured load. The motorway section of the route was incredibly dull as we stuck to the 80km/h car-and-trailer speed limit.
At times we felt a little anxious as cars and buses would appear rapidly behind us and then overtake. Our trailer was braked so it had internal brakes that were applied whenever the car slowed down. The trailer was new so it didnt tug or jerk at all something older or poorly serviced trailers can do.
At the end of the trip a car park was coned out and a number of reversing tasks were set for us by John Kearney an instructor with Hynes Quinn driving school.
Professional training can make the difference between passing and failing your test. More often than not people tend to oversteer; with professional training you can get the best advice to get the trailer going where you want it to go he said.
We managed quite well but reversing with a trailer is a skill you really only master with practice.
Reversing a trailer is counterintuitive but once you get a feel for it your confidence grows. With a growing number of cars fitted with hitches taking to our roads its a skill that more motorists should formally learn rather than hope to pick up along the way.
Read more:http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/ireland-s-confusing-towing-rules-explained-1.2633473
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ne of the vehicles that occupy a position in the top three of our spyshots section this year has to be the next-gen Mercedes-Benz G-Class. The W464 prototypes seem to be everywhere these days and we're back with another piece of spy footage showing the offroader.

The video, which you can find at the bottom of the page, reveals a pair of G Wagons performing towing tests - both vehicles spied here were consciously handling their trailer duties.

The towing capacity of the next G is obviously an important detail and while we're talking weight, we'll remind you the Mercedes-Benz is expected to go on a serious diet. The new platform should allow the rugged terrain machine to become up to 400 kilos (880 lbs) lighter, all while growing in width, which will seriously boost cabin space.

Speaking of the interior, we've already shown you various bits of the dashboard, such as the instrument cluster or the rounded air vents - forget the digital craze taking over the car world, the Gelandewagen will stay true to its roots, maintaining analog dials.

Infotainment fans shouldn't fret, though, as the vehicle will pack the large 12.3-inch central display seen on the S-Class and E-Class, all without the add-on positioning of the current G-Class. In case you missed the leaked dashboard, you can find it here.

While the wild side of the rumor mill expects the G-Class to receive the 48V electric system that will allow the upcoming S-Class facelift to offer mild hybrid assistance, the rugged focus of the model could mean engineers will skip this feature for the once-military offroader, but it's still too early to tell.

And to end this story on a high horse(power) note, we'll mention that the automaker's 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, in multiple stages of tune, will serve an important part of the new G-Class line-up, namely the G550/G500 and G63. So we''re not exactly dealing with a gentle giant here.

Proper loading and size of your tow vehicle is critical to staying safe while traveling no matter the weather you may come across during your journeys. Russ Tice, For the Press Dispatch

Happy Camping to you! Russ and Lori would like to answer some email questions we have received with regard to tow vehicles and trailer weights or lengths. Most questions applied to the towing of a travel trailer, yet the question of towing boats or vehicles behind a motorhome also was of concern to some.

The dynamics of trailer towing have not changed much over the years but the dynamics of tow-vehicles and travel trailers has over the past several years. Tow vehicles of today are computer controlled wonders of horsepower and gear selection with automatic transmissions. With that in mind, proper loading and size of the tow vehicle is critical to staying safe.

An overloaded trailer or towing with a vehicle that has exceeded its tow or weight ratings is extremely dangerous. It is not just the stated weight of the vehicle and trailer. Those figures are generally for an ‘unloaded vehicle’. This includes the weight of passengers, water, propane, holding tanks, and all gear stored aboard. For example; four adults in the vehicle can easily weigh a combined 600 pounds or more. 50 gallons of water in the rig is another 400 pounds. You are already at 1000 pounds of extra weight and we have not put an ounce of gear, food, or supplies in the rig yet. When we add up the combined weight of everything you are taking with you, it is not unusual to find that we have 500 or more pounds to think about. A few cases of water or soda give you an idea of how weight adds up. Russ and Lori want you to stay safe.

There is an expert in the High Desert with regard to tow vehicles, travel trailers, motorhomes, you name it. Timm over at I-15 RV in Hesperia has been around as long as Russ and Lori. He has a history and knowledge to assist you with any RV questions. I spoke with him and he is more than happy for you to visit or call. His expertise is what has Russ and Lori set-up nicely with a great travel trailer-tow vehicle combo.

We tow what is in length a 34 foot Vibe travel trailer. Interestingly enough, towing is quite nice with our RAM half-ton truck. The RAM has a Hemi engine and 3.92 differential. That gives our truck about a 10,500 pound tow rating. The Vibe Extreme Lite trailer is about 6,700 pounds unloaded. We tow with only 5 gallons of water in the trailer tank. Even then, I am looking at a good 700 pounds more when we consider our two little generators, full RV propane tanks, gas can, bottled water, food, clothes, firewood, etc. Put Lori and Russ in the truck cab and there is another 300 pounds. Russ and Lori agree on the 300 pounds yet are still in discussion about that weight distribution. Our pre-load 6,700 pounds is now about 7,700 pounds.

Always try to stay between 70 percent and no more than 80 percent of your vehicle’s tow ratings. Three terms you need to know are GVWR, RGAWR, and GCWR. GVWR is the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. This is the weight that the vehicle should never ever exceed. This rating is the ‘most’ that your vehicle should ever weigh. Again, give yourself a margin. Never max-out a vehicle. You would never do that to a horse, right? Treat your vehicle like a good person treats a horse and it will give you many years of enjoyment.

RGAWR is the Rear Gross Axle Weight Rating. This is the maximum weight that the tow vehicle’s rear axle should carry. This is where hitch weight of the trailer can make a difference.

GCWR is the Gross Combination Weight Rating. This is the combined gross tow vehicle weight and gross trailer weight that should never be exceeded.

One more deal here is the hitch rating on your tow vehicle. The hitch rating is the absolute most weight that the hitch can support. Stay within a safe margin. The vehicle tow receiver may have a different rating number than the hitch, depending on manufacture or different ratings. Always go with the lower number.

You can search some online weight calculators for RV and travel trailer use. We use this for comparison only and do not rely on these numbers. Only the actual ratings for your particular rig matter.

A man who stole a flatbed tow truck in New Jersey Monday morning led police on a two-state chase that ended in Ramapo, authorities said.

Two New York State troopers were injured when their patrol cars were sideswiped by the fleeing flatbed, said State Trooper Dermont Summers.

The driver of the stolen vehicle, identified by East Rutherford police as Paul Gudanowski, 51, of Hackensack, New Jersey, is facing charges in both states.

The chase began in East Rutherford after 8 a.m. when police spotted the man driving the flatbed in an erratic manner on Route 120, close to MetLife Stadium. Another tow truck near it had tried to stop the stolen truck.

When Gudanowski sped off, police from several New Jersey towns joined in a chase that went up Route 17 North into New York, where New York State troopers joined the pursuit.

The truck entered I-87 northbound and left the highway at Exit 16 in Orange County by the Woodbury Common Outlet stores. It then made a U-turn, exiting the highway at 15A with more than a dozen police cars surrounding the truck.

The truck came to a stop on Route 59 in Ramapo, near the border with Suffern, after an East Rutherford patrol car accidentally hooked onto the flatbed’s rear bumper.

It is unclear whether other officers were also injured.

Gudanowski was charged by state police with operating a stolen vehicle, assault on a police officer and numerous driving violations, Summers said. He is being held in New York until he is extradited to New Jersey, where East Rutherford police will charge him with aggravated assault and possession of stolen property.

Maria Pacheco 37 and husbandJose Villagrana 41 grew up in Pasadena and always wanted to camp out along the parade route as kids but never got to.
Now they make it a tradition with their three children two boys ages 16 and 12 and an 8-year-old girl. This year they staked out their spot near the intersection of Colorado Boulevard. and Oak Knoll Avenue since 6 a.m. Sunday.
"We try and say'No we're not going to do it this year' but they don't take no for an answer" Maria said laughing.
They said knew about the added security this year but they didn't think twice about coming. They also watched the weather and said they lucked out -- they only got sprinkled on a little bit Sunday night.
At 5:39 a.m. more than a dozen tow trucks headlights on paraded down Colorado horns blaring. A man in one of them yelled "Good morning!"
"The wakeup call!" Jose said. "They do it every year." He then pumped his arm at one of the trucks grinning and trying to get it to honk.
Read more:http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-2017-rose-parade-live-coverage-tow-truck-wake-up-call-and-fire-pits-1483367310-htmlstory.html
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